Exam question 1 · Off with her head and the finest house on the river: Alice…

Identify the device by which Lewis Carroll represents Alice, weeping, as producing «a large pool all round her».

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, Lewis Carroll · What happens: identify, represent, weep, produce · To what, where: device, Alice, large pool

This is exam question 1 of lesson 54 «Off with her head and the finest house on the river: Alice and Toad» of the language 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 device	det
3	device	device	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 represents	obl
6	Lewis	Lewis	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 Carroll	flat
7	Carroll	Carroll	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 represents	nsubj
8	represents	represent	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 device	acl:relcl
9	Alice	Alice	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 represents	obj
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 weeping	punct
11	weeping	weep	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 represents	advcl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 producing	punct
13	as	as	SCONJ	_	14 producing	mark
14	producing	produce	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	11 weeping	conj
15	«	«	PUNCT	_	18 pool	punct
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 pool	det
17	large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 pool	amod
18	pool	pool	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 producing	obl
19	all	all	ADV	_	21 her	advmod
20	round	round	ADP	_	21 her	case
21	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 producing	obl
22	»	»	PUNCT	_	11 weeping	punct
23	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the device		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent device=Theme
2	represent	present	Lewis Carroll	Alice	by the device	vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot alice=Theme
3	weep	gerund	Lewis Carroll not said here			vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	produce	gerund	Lewis Carroll not said here	a large pool	round Carroll	vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

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 right answer

A figure of speech rendered literally for comic effect

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 figure	det
2	figure	figure	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 speech	case
4	speech	speech	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 figure	nmod
5	rendered	render	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 figure	acl
6	literally	literally	ADV	_	5 rendered	advmod
7	for	for	ADP	_	9 effect	case
8	comic	comic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 effect	amod
9	effect	effect	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 rendered	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	render	participle		a figure of speech not said here				for comic effect; literally property	vn give-13.1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent
2	figure			speech					nom figure «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

A sarcastic remark of the White Rabbit

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 remark	det
2	sarcastic	sarcastic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 remark	amod
3	remark	remark	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 Rabbit	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 Rabbit	det
6	White	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 Rabbit	amod
7	Rabbit	Rabbit	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 remark	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	remark			the White Rabbit					nom remark «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

An understatement of Alice's distress

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 understatement	det
2	understatement	understatement	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 distress	case
4	Alice	Alice	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 distress	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 Alice	case
6	distress	distress	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 understatement	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	understate			Alice's distress					nom understatement «communication transitive»: of=patient
2	distress		Alice						nom distress «feeling transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4

A precise account of the volume of human tears

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 account	det
2	precise	precise	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 account	amod
3	account	account	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 volume	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 volume	det
6	volume	volume	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 account	nmod
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 tears	case
8	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 tears	amod
9	tears	tear	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 volume	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	account			the volume of human tears					nom account «communication transitive»: of=patient

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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/54-off-with-her-head-and-the-finest-house-on-the-river-alice-and-toad/e1/