Exam question 4 · Soft words for hard things: pregnancy and birth and relati…

Which of the following most accurately characterises a couple described as "living apart"?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris, describe, live · To what, where: couple

This is exam question 4 of lesson 12 «Soft words for hard things: pregnancy and birth and relations and family» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 following	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	4 following	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 following	det
4	following	follow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	6 accurately	advmod
6	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	7 characterises	advmod
7	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 following	advcl
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 couple	det
9	couple	couple	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 characterises	obj
10	described	describe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 couple	acl
11	as	as	SCONJ	_	13 living	mark
12	"	"	PUNCT	_	13 living	punct
13	living	live	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	10 described	advcl
14	apart	apart	ADV	_	13 living	advmod
15	"	"	PUNCT	_	13 living	punct
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 following	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present	a couple	accurately property	tree rules
3	describe	participle	a couple not said here		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent
4	live in a quote	gerund		apart property	vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

They are temporarily travelling abroad

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	4 travelling	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 travelling	aux
3	temporarily	temporarily	ADV	_	4 travelling	advmod
4	travelling	travel	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	abroad	abroad	ADV	_	4 travelling	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	travel	present · progressive	They					abroad, temporarily property	vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

They are married but no longer reside together

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 married	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 married	aux:pass
3	married	marry	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	but	but	CCONJ	_	7 reside	cc
5	no	no	ADV	_	6 longer	advmod
6	longer	long	ADV	Degree=Cmp	7 reside	advmod
7	reside	reside	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 married	conj
8	together	together	ADV	_	7 reside	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	marry	present · passive		They					vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
2	reside	infinitive						long, together property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

They have relocated jointly to another region

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 relocated	nsubj
2	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 relocated	aux
3	relocated	relocate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	jointly	jointly	ADV	_	3 relocated	advmod
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 region	case
6	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	7 region	det
7	region	region	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 relocated	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	relocate	present · perfect	They					to another region; jointly property	tree rules

Option 4

They have never cohabited prior to marriage

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	4 cohabited	nsubj
2	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 cohabited	aux
3	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	4 cohabited	advmod
4	cohabited	cohabit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	prior	prior	ADJ	Degree=Pos ExtPos=ADP	7 marriage	case
6	to	to	ADP	_	5 prior	fixed
7	marriage	marriage	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 cohabited	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not cohabit	present · perfect	They					prior marriage	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/12-birth-and-couples/e4/