---
title: Which signal did the Irish of old use to welcome strangers to a house? — Irish Fairy Tales, Fin M'Coul and Cucu… · tree and pragmatics
description: Which signal did the Irish of old use to welcome strangers to a house? Exam question 1 of lesson 2010 «Irish Fairy Tales, Fin M'Coul and Cucullin, part 29: Oonagh tricks the giant with iron cakes» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question a
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/2010-pg7885-part29/e1/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [questions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/) / [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/) / [Irish Fairy Tales, Fin M'Coul and Cucu…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/2010-pg7885-part29/) / e1

# Exam question 1 · Irish Fairy Tales, Fin M'Coul and Cucullin, part 29: Oonag…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Which signal did the Irish of old use to welcome strangers to a house?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 3 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** signal · **What happens:** do, welcome · **To what, where:** Irish old use, strangers

<!-- .vabout -->
This is exam question 1 of lesson 2010 «Irish Fairy Tales, Fin M'Coul and Cucullin, part 29: Oonagh tricks the giant with iron cakes» of the books 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](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/books/2010-pg7885-part29/#e1).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:2010-pg7885-part29:e1:1
# text = Which signal did the Irish of old use to welcome strangers to a house?
1	Which	which	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	2	det	_	_
2	signal	signal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
5	Irish	Irish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	welcome	welcome	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	acl	_	_
11	strangers	stranger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past | which signal | the Irish old use |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent use=Eventuality |
| 2 | **welcome** | to-infinitive | which signal *not said here* | strangers |  |  |  | to a house | vn admit-64.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stranger=Theme |

<!-- .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 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A high smoke followed by three long whistles blown at the gate

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:2010-pg7885-part29:e1:o1:1
# text = A high smoke followed by three long whistles blown at the gate
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	smoke	smoke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
4	followed	follow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
7	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	whistles	whistle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl:agent	_	_
9	blown	blow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	acl	_	_
10	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	gate	gate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **follow** | participle |  | a high smoke *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **blow** | participle |  | three long whistles *not said here* |  | the gate |  |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient |

### Option 2 · ✓ the right answer {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A high smoke followed by three whistles

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:2010-pg7885-part29:e1:o2:1
# text = A high smoke followed by three whistles
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	smoke	smoke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
4	followed	follow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	acl	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	whistles	whistle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl:agent	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **follow** | participle |  | a high smoke *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 3 · ← Mova's choice {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A tall column of smoke and a bell

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:2010-pg7885-part29:e1:o3:1
# text = A tall column of smoke and a bell
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	tall	tall	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	column	column	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	smoke	smoke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	bell	bell	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A high smoke rising from the roof followed by three whistles

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:2010-pg7885-part29:e1:o4:1
# text = A high smoke rising from the roof followed by three whistles
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	smoke	smoke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
4	rising	rise	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	acl	_	_
5	from	from	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	roof	roof	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	followed	follow	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	acl	_	_
9	by	by	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	nummod	_	_
11	whistles	whistle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl:agent	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **rise** | gerund | a high smoke *not said here* |  |  | the roof |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from roof=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **follow** | participle |  | the roof *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- 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: [Irish Fairy Tales, Fin M'Coul and Cucu…, test 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/2010-pg7885-part29/t14/)
- next →: [Irish Fairy Tales, Fin M'Coul and Cucu…, exam 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/2010-pg7885-part29/e2/)
- ↑ back to [Irish Fairy Tales, Fin M'Coul and Cucullin, part 29: Oonagh tricks the giant with iron cakes](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/2010-pg7885-part29/)