Test 12 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: death and dying
A US pilot story: "Two of his friends bought the farm over the sea." What happened to his friends?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: US pilot story · What happens: buy, happen · To what, where: farm, sea
This is test 12 · ★ of lesson 1 «Soft words for hard things: death and dying» of the euphemisms 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.
The question
Sentence 1: A US pilot story: "Two of his friends bought the farm over the sea."
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 4 story | det |
| 2 | US | US | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 story | compound |
| 3 | pilot | pilot | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 story | compound |
| 4 | story | story | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 bought | nsubj |
| 5 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 7 Two | punct |
| 6 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 Two | punct |
| 7 | Two | two | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 4 story | appos |
| 8 | of | of | ADP | _ | 10 friends | case |
| 9 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 10 friends | nmod:poss |
| 10 | friends | friend | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 Two | nmod |
| 11 | bought | buy | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 farm | det |
| 13 | farm | farm | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 bought | obj |
| 14 | over | over | ADP | _ | 16 sea | case |
| 15 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 16 sea | det |
| 16 | sea | sea | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 bought | obl |
| 17 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 11 bought | punct |
| 18 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 11 bought | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | buy in a quote | past | a US pilot story | the farm | the sea | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent farm=Theme |
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.
Sentence 2: What happened to his friends?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 2 happened | nsubj |
| 2 | happened | happen | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | to | to | ADP | _ | 5 friends | case |
| 4 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 5 friends | nmod:poss |
| 5 | friends | friend | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 happened | obl |
| 6 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 2 happened | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | happen | past | to story's friends | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
They bought farms by the sea
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 bought | nsubj |
| 2 | bought | buy | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | farms | farm | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 bought | obj |
| 4 | by | by | ADP | _ | 6 sea | case |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 sea | det |
| 6 | sea | sea | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 bought | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | buy | past | They | farms | by the sea | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent farm=Theme |
Option 2
They moved to the country
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 moved | nsubj |
| 2 | moved | move | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | to | to | ADP | _ | 5 country | case |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 country | det |
| 5 | country | country | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 moved | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | move | past | They | the country | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme to country=Trajectory |
Option 3 · ✓ the right answer
They were killed over the sea
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 killed | nsubj:pass |
| 2 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 killed | aux:pass |
| 3 | killed | kill | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 4 | over | over | ADP | _ | 6 sea | case |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 sea | det |
| 6 | sea | sea | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 killed | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | kill | past · passive | They | the sea | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
Option 4
They landed on a farm safely
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 landed | nsubj |
| 2 | landed | land | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | on | on | ADP | _ | 5 farm | case |
| 4 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 5 farm | det |
| 5 | farm | farm | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 landed | obl |
| 6 | safely | safely | ADV | _ | 2 landed | advmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | land | past | They | a farm | safely property | vn pocket-9.10-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme on farm=Destination |
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/t12/