---
title: So what was the knife's big deal? — West Highland Tales, Ian the Soldier's… · tree and pragmatics
description: So what was the knife's big deal? Test 10 · ★ of lesson 1141 «West Highland Tales, Ian the Soldier's Son, part 7: Ian outwits the raven and slays the second giant» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice 
---

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# Test 10 · ★ · West Highland Tales, Ian the Soldier's Son, part 7: Ian ou…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So what was the knife's big deal?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** big deal

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 10 · ★ of lesson 1141 «West Highland Tales, Ian the Soldier's Son, part 7: Ian outwits the raven and slays the second giant» of the books course of Mova's primary school. 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](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/books/1141-pg3027-part7/#t10).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1141-pg3027-part7:t10:1
# text = So what was the knife's big deal?
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	8	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	's	's	PART	POS	_	5	case	_	_
7	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	deal	deal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | the knife's big deal |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
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 {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was sharp enough to chop a head off

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1141-pg3027-part7:t10:o1:1
# text = It was sharp enough to chop a head off
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	chop	chop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	off	off	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | It |  |  |  |  | enough, sharp *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **chop off** | to-infinitive |  | a head |  |  |  |  | vn carve-21.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Patient |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was sharp

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1141-pg3027-part7:t10:o2:1
# text = It was sharp
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | It |  |  |  |  | sharp *property* | tree rules |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was big enough to kill a bull

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1141-pg3027-part7:t10:o3:1
# text = It was big enough to kill a bull
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	bull	bull	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | It |  |  |  |  | big, enough *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **kill** | to-infinitive |  | a bull |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bull=Theme |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was sharp enough to cut a rope

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1141-pg3027-part7:t10:o4:1
# text = It was sharp enough to cut a rope
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	cut	cut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	rope	rope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | It |  |  |  |  | enough, sharp *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **cut** | to-infinitive |  | a rope |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset rope=Product |

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**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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- ← previous: [West Highland Tales, Ian the Soldier's…, test 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1141-pg3027-part7/t9/)
- next →: [West Highland Tales, Ian the Soldier's…, test 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1141-pg3027-part7/t11/)
- ↑ back to [West Highland Tales, Ian the Soldier's Son, part 7: Ian outwits the raven and slays the second giant](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1141-pg3027-part7/)