Exam question 4 · Soft words for hard things: death and dying

Ascertain the meaning conveyed by the designation "the late" when it precedes the name of a person.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, meaning · What happens: ascertain, convey, precede, name · To what, where: meaning, name, person

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1 «Soft words for hard things: death and dying» of the euphemisms 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.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 meaning	det
3	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	conveyed	convey	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 meaning	acl
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 designation	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 designation	det
7	designation	designation	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 conveyed	obl
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 late	punct
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 late	det
10	late	late	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 designation	amod
11	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 late	punct
12	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	14 precedes	advmod
13	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 precedes	nsubj
14	precedes	precede	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 late	advcl
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 name	det
16	name	name	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 precedes	obj
17	of	of	ADP	_	19 person	case
18	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	19 person	det
19	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 name	nmod
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the meaning		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Topic
2	convey	participle		the meaning not said here	by the designation	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
3	precede	present	meaning	the name of a person		vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme name=Co-Theme
4	name			a person		nom name «communication transitive»: of=patient

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

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

That the person is deceased

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 person	det
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 person	det
3	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 deceased	nsubj:pass
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 deceased	aux:pass
5	deceased	decease	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	decease	present · passive		that person					tree rules

Option 2

That the person is habitually unpunctual

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 person	det
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 person	det
3	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 unpunctual	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 unpunctual	cop
5	habitually	habitually	ADV	_	6 unpunctual	advmod
6	unpunctual	unpunctual	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	that person					habitually, unpunctual property	tree rules

Option 3

That the person works during the night

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 person	det
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 person	det
3	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 works	nsubj
4	works	work	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	during	during	ADP	_	7 night	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 night	det
7	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 works	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	work	present	that person				night		vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

That the person is late

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 person	det
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 person	det
3	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 late	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 late	cop
5	late	late	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	that person					late property	tree rules

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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/1-death-polite-and-joking/e4/