---
title: What, according to the text, do mermaids become upon their death? — Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Little Mer… · tree and pragmatics
description: What, according to the text, do mermaids become upon their death? Exam question 4 of lesson 878 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid, part 89: the mermaid watches the prince's palace and dreams of a soul» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of
---

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# Exam question 4 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid, part 89: the m…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What, according to the text, do mermaids become upon their death?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** mermaids · **What happens:** accord, become, die · **To what, where:** text

<!-- .vabout -->
This is exam question 4 of lesson 878 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid, part 89: the mermaid watches the prince's palace and dreams of a soul» 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/878-pg27200-part89/#e4).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:878-pg27200-part89:e4:1
# text = What, according to the text, do mermaids become upon their death?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	according	accord	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	1	acl	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	text	text	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
8	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	mermaids	mermaid	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
10	become	become	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
11	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **accord** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | to the text *goal* | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP PP.goal»: agent=Agent to text=Goal |
| 2 | **become** | present · do-support |  |  |  |  |  | upon mermaids's death | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **die** |  | mermaids *= mermaid* |  |  |  |  |  | nom death «event intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the bubbles on the top of the sea

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:878-pg27200-part89:e4:o1:1
# text = the bubbles on the top of the sea
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	bubbles	bubble	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
3	on	on	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	top	top	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
```

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

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the white spray on the deep water

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:878-pg27200-part89:e4:o2:1
# text = the white spray on the deep water
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	spray	spray	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	deep	deep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
```

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

### Option 3 · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the foam on the surface of the water

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:878-pg27200-part89:e4:o3:1
# text = the foam on the surface of the water
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	foam	foam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	on	on	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	surface	surface	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
```

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

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the waves

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:878-pg27200-part89:e4:o4:1
# text = the waves
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	waves	wave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
```

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

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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: [Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Little Mer…, exam 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/878-pg27200-part89/e3/)
- next →: [Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Little Mer…, test 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/879-pg27200-part90/t1/)
- ↑ back to [Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid, part 89: the mermaid watches the prince's palace and dreams of a soul](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/878-pg27200-part89/)