---
title: mate, why did they tie strings to the princess's waist? — Lang's Fairy Book, Esben and the Witch… · tree and pragmatics
description: mate, why did they tie strings to the princess's waist? Test 10 · ★ of lesson 1659 «Lang's Fairy Book, Esben and the Witch: Esben roasts the witch, saves his brothers and goes home» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each opti
---

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# Test 10 · ★ · Lang's Fairy Book, Esben and the Witch: Esben roasts the w…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
mate, why did they tie strings to the princess's waist?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 2 · **The right answer:** option 1 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** they · **What happens:** tie · **To what, where:** strings

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 10 · ★ of lesson 1659 «Lang's Fairy Book, Esben and the Witch: Esben roasts the witch, saves his brothers and goes home» 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/1659-pg5615-part48/#t10).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1659-pg5615-part48:t10:1
# text = mate, why did they tie strings to the princess's waist?
1	mate	mate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	vocative	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
3	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	_
4	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	tie	tie	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	strings	string	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	princess	princess	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	's	's	PART	POS	_	10	case	_	_
12	waist	waist	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tie** | past · do-support | they | strings |  |  |  | to the princess's waist; mate *vocative* | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent string=Patient to waist=Co-Patient |

<!-- .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 · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
so the wind couldn't blow her off

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1659-pg5615-part48:t10:o1:1
# text = so the wind couldn't blow her off
1	so	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	blow	blow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	off	off	ADP	RP	_	6	compound:prt	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **blow off** | could | the wind | her *= she* |  |  |  |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP apart»: agent=Agent she=Patient |

### Option 2 · ← Mova's choice {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
so the wind couldn't blow her off the high cliffs into the sea

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1659-pg5615-part48:t10:o2:1
# text = so the wind couldn't blow her off the high cliffs into the sea
1	so	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	blow	blow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	off	off	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	cliffs	cliff	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
12	into	into	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **blow** | could | the wind | her *= she* |  | the sea |  | off the high cliffs | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent she=Patient off cliff=Co-Patient |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
so the wind couldn't blow her away while the king watched from his tower

<!-- fold The tree, 15 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1659-pg5615-part48:t10:o3:1
# text = so the wind couldn't blow her away while the king watched from his tower
1	so	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	blow	blow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
7	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	away	away	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
9	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	watched	watch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
13	from	from	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	tower	tower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **blow away** | could | the wind | her *= she* |  |  |  | away *property* | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP apart»: agent=Agent she=Patient |
| 2 | **watch** | past | the king |  |  | king's tower |  |  | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
so the crowd could pull her back

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1659-pg5615-part48:t10:o4:1
# text = so the crowd could pull her back
1	so	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	crowd	crowd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	pull	pull	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	back	back	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pull back** | could | the crowd | her *= she* |  |  |  |  | vn push-12-1 «NP V NP ADJP-Result»: agent=Agent she=Result |

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Lang's Fairy Book, Esben and the Witch…, test 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1659-pg5615-part48/t9/)
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