Test 8 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: death and dying
Mum: "Your great-grandad departed this life before you were born." What does she mean?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Mum · What happens: depart, bear, mean · To what, where: life, you
This is test 8 · ★ 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: Mum: "Your great-grandad departed this life before you were born."
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mum | mum | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 departed | nsubj |
| 2 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 1 Mum | punct |
| 3 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 8 departed | punct |
| 4 | Your | your | PRON | Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 7 grandad | nmod:poss |
| 5 | great | great | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 grandad | amod |
| 6 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 5 great | punct |
| 7 | grandad | grandad | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 departed | nsubj |
| 8 | departed | depart | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 9 | this | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 10 life | det |
| 10 | life | life | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 departed | obj |
| 11 | before | before | SCONJ | _ | 14 born | mark |
| 12 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 14 born | nsubj:pass |
| 13 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 14 born | aux:pass |
| 14 | born | bear | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 8 departed | advcl |
| 15 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 departed | punct |
| 16 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 8 departed | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | depart in a quote | past | Mum | this life | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme life=Initial_Location | ||||
| 2 | bear in a quote | past · passive | you | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=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.
Sentence 2: What does she mean?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 4 mean | obj |
| 2 | does | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 mean | aux |
| 3 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 mean | nsubj |
| 4 | mean | mean | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 5 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 4 mean | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | mean | present · do-support | Mum | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Topic |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
He was born before you were
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 born | nsubj:pass |
| 2 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 born | aux:pass |
| 3 | born | bear | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 4 | before | before | ADP | _ | 5 you | case |
| 5 | you | you | PRON | Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs | 3 born | obl |
| 6 | were | be | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 born | conj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | bear | past · passive | He | before you | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient | ||||
| 2 | be | past | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
Option 2
He left the country before you were born
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 left | nsubj |
| 2 | left | leave | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 country | det |
| 4 | country | country | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 left | obj |
| 5 | before | before | SCONJ | _ | 8 born | mark |
| 6 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 8 born | nsubj:pass |
| 7 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 born | aux:pass |
| 8 | born | bear | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 2 left | advcl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | leave | past | He | the country | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent country=Theme | ||||
| 2 | bear | past · passive | you | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
Option 3 · ✓ the right answer
He died before you were born
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 died | nsubj |
| 2 | died | die | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | before | before | SCONJ | _ | 6 born | mark |
| 4 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 6 born | nsubj:pass |
| 5 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 born | aux:pass |
| 6 | born | bear | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 2 died | advcl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | die | past | He | vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute | |||||
| 2 | bear | past · passive | you | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
Option 4
He stopped working before you were born
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 stopped | nsubj |
| 2 | stopped | stop | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | working | work | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 2 stopped | xcomp |
| 4 | before | before | SCONJ | _ | 7 born | mark |
| 5 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 7 born | nsubj:pass |
| 6 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 born | aux:pass |
| 7 | born | bear | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 3 working | advcl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | stop | past | He | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 2 | work | gerund | He not said here | vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 3 | bear | past · passive | you | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
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/t8/