---
title: Why might David have punished Nathan instead of owning up? — Owning up: the broken vase and the los… · tree and pragmatics
description: Why might David have punished Nathan instead of owning up? Test 7 · ★ of lesson 89 «Owning up: the broken vase and the lost library book» of the religion ethics course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice was wrong.
---

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# Test 7 · ★ · Owning up: the broken vase and the lost library book

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Why might David have punished Nathan instead of owning up?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 2 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** David · **What happens:** punish, own up · **To what, where:** Nathan

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This is test 7 · ★ of lesson 89 «Owning up: the broken vase and the lost library book» of the religion ethics 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/religion-ethics/89-owning-up-the-broken-vase-and-the-lost-library-book/#t7).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:religion-ethics:89-owning-up-the-broken-vase-and-the-lost-library-book:t7:1
# text = Why might David have punished Nathan instead of owning up?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
2	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	David	David	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	punished	punish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	Nathan	Nathan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
7	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=SCONJ	9	mark	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	fixed	_	_
9	owning	own	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
10	up	up	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **punish** | might · perfect | David | Nathan |  |  |  |  | vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nathan=Patient |
| 2 | **own up** | gerund | David *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot |

<!-- .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 -->
Because Nathan stole the poor man's lamb

```conllu
# sent_id = question:religion-ethics:89-owning-up-the-broken-vase-and-the-lost-library-book:t7:o1:1
# text = Because Nathan stole the poor man's lamb
1	Because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	Nathan	Nathan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	stole	steal	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	's	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	lamb	lamb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **steal** | past | Nathan | the poor man's lamb |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location lamb=Theme |

### Option 2 · ← Mova's choice {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Because Nathan told a lie about the lamb

```conllu
# sent_id = question:religion-ethics:89-owning-up-the-broken-vase-and-the-lost-library-book:t7:o2:1
# text = Because Nathan told a lie about the lamb
1	Because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	Nathan	Nathan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	lie	lie	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	about	about	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	lamb	lamb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Nathan | a lie |  |  |  | about the lamb | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent lie=Recipient about lamb=Topic |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Because David didn't understand the story

```conllu
# sent_id = question:religion-ethics:89-owning-up-the-broken-vase-and-the-lost-library-book:t7:o3:1
# text = Because David didn't understand the story
1	Because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	David	David	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **understand** | past · do-support | David | the story |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer story=Stimulus |

### Option 4 · ✓ the right answer {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He was king, and kings could punish anyone who accused them

```conllu
# sent_id = question:religion-ethics:89-owning-up-the-broken-vase-and-the-lost-library-book:t7:o4:1
# text = He was king, and kings could punish anyone who accused them
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|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	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
6	kings	king	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
7	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	punish	punish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	acl:relcl	_	_
9	anyone	anyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	8	obj	_	_
10	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
11	accused	accuse	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | He | king |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **punish** | could | kings | anyone |  |  |  |  | vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anyone=Patient |
| 3 | **accuse** | past |  | them *= they* |  |  |  |  | vn suspect-81 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent they=Theme |

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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.

<!-- /div -->

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- ← previous: [Owning up: the broken vase and the los…, test 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/religion-ethics/89-owning-up-the-broken-vase-and-the-lost-library-book/t6/)
- next →: [Owning up: the broken vase and the los…, test 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/religion-ethics/89-owning-up-the-broken-vase-and-the-lost-library-book/t8/)
- ↑ back to [Owning up: the broken vase and the lost library book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/religion-ethics/89-owning-up-the-broken-vase-and-the-lost-library-book/)