Exam question 1 · Gaols, magistrates and old punishments: from the stocks to…

Identify the persons who, in England and Wales, adjudicate upon the lesser criminal cases.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, adjudicate · To what, where: persons

This is exam question 1 of lesson 84 «Gaols, magistrates and old punishments: from the stocks to the Children Act of 1908» of the history course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: the test at school.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 persons	det
3	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Identify	obj
4	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 England	nsubj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 England	punct
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 England	case
7	England	England	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 persons	appos
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 Wales	cc
9	Wales	Wales	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 England	conj
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 adjudicate	punct
11	adjudicate	adjudicate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Identify	parataxis
12	upon	upon	ADP	_	16 cases	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 cases	det
14	lesser	less	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	16 cases	amod
15	criminal	criminal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 cases	amod
16	cases	case	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 adjudicate	obl
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the persons					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent person=Theme
2	adjudicate	present						upon the lesser criminal cases	tree rules

One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

The clergy of the parish church

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 clergy	det
2	clergy	clergy	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 church	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 church	det
5	parish	parish	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 church	compound
6	church	church	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 clergy	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2

Judges of the highest court, sitting together with a jury of twelve citizens

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Judges	judge	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 sitting	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 court	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 court	det
4	highest	high	ADJ	Degree=Sup	5 court	amod
5	court	court	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Judges	nmod
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 sitting	punct
7	sitting	sit	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
8	together	together	ADV	_	7 sitting	advmod
9	with	with	ADP	_	11 jury	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 jury	det
11	jury	jury	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 sitting	obl
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 citizens	case
13	twelve	twelve	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	14 citizens	nummod
14	citizens	citizen	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 jury	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sit	gerund	Judges of the highest court					with a jury of twelve citizens; together property	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Officers of the police, acting upon their own authority

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Officers	officer	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 acting	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	4 police	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 police	det
4	police	police	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Officers	nmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 acting	punct
6	acting	act	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
7	upon	upon	ADP	_	10 authority	case
8	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 authority	nmod:poss
9	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 authority	amod
10	authority	authority	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 acting	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	act	gerund	Officers of the police					upon Officers's own authority	vn act-114-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Magistrates, being ordinary local persons rather than trained lawyers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Magistrates	magistrate	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 persons	punct
3	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 persons	cop
4	ordinary	ordinary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 persons	amod
5	local	local	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 persons	amod
6	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Magistrates	nmod
7	rather	rather	ADV	ExtPos=CCONJ	10 lawyers	cc
8	than	than	ADP	_	7 rather	fixed
9	trained	train	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 lawyers	amod
10	lawyers	lawyer	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 persons	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	gerund		ordinary local persons rather trained lawyers					tree rules
2	train	participle							vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Text: the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (world/data/school/), as the course runner gave them to the student. Trees: Mova's own parse — the en model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

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