Test 8 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: pregnancy and birth
"We've been trying for a baby for two years." What do they want?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: We, they · What happens: try, want
This is test 8 · ★ of lesson 11 «Soft words for hard things: pregnancy and birth» 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: "We've been trying for a baby for two years."
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 trying | punct |
| 2 | We | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 5 trying | nsubj |
| 3 | 've | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 trying | aux |
| 4 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 5 trying | aux |
| 5 | trying | try | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 6 | for | for | ADP | _ | 8 baby | case |
| 7 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 8 baby | det |
| 8 | baby | baby | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 trying | obl |
| 9 | for | for | ADP | _ | 11 years | case |
| 10 | two | two | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 11 years | nummod |
| 11 | years | year | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 trying | obl |
| 12 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 trying | punct |
| 13 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 trying | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | try in a quote | present · perfect · progressive | We | year | for a baby | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
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 do they want?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 4 want | obj |
| 2 | do | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 want | aux |
| 3 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 want | nsubj |
| 4 | want | want | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 5 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 4 want | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | want | present · do-support | they | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot what=Theme |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
To babysit more
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | To | to | PART | _ | 2 babysit | mark |
| 2 | babysit | babysit | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | more | more | ADV | Degree=Cmp | 2 babysit | advmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | babysit | to-infinitive | vn captain-29.8-1 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent |
Option 2
To adopt a puppy
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | To | to | PART | _ | 2 adopt | mark |
| 2 | adopt | adopt | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 4 puppy | det |
| 4 | puppy | puppy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 adopt | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | adopt | to-infinitive | a puppy | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent puppy=Theme |
Option 3 · ✓ the right answer
To have a baby
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | To | to | PART | _ | 2 have | mark |
| 2 | have | have | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 4 baby | det |
| 4 | baby | baby | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 have | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | have | to-infinitive | a baby | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent baby=Patient |
Option 4
To buy baby clothes
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | To | to | PART | _ | 2 buy | mark |
| 2 | buy | buy | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | baby | baby | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 clothes | compound |
| 4 | clothes | clothes | NOUN | Number=Ptan | 2 buy | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | buy | to-infinitive | baby clothes | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent clothes=Theme |
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/11-pregnancy-and-birth/t8/