Exam question 1 · Soft words for hard things: relations and family
Identify the meaning most accurately conveyed by the expression "significant other" as employed in formal American correspondence.
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, convey, employ · To what, where: meaning, formal American correspondence
This is exam question 1 of lesson 13 «Soft words for hard things: 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 | Identify | identify | 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 Identify | obj |
| 4 | most | most | ADV | Degree=Sup | 5 accurately | advmod |
| 5 | accurately | accurately | ADV | _ | 6 conveyed | advmod |
| 6 | conveyed | convey | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 3 meaning | acl |
| 7 | by | by | ADP | _ | 9 expression | case |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 expression | det |
| 9 | expression | expression | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 conveyed | obl |
| 10 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 12 other | punct |
| 11 | significant | significant | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 other | amod |
| 12 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 9 expression | amod |
| 13 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 12 other | punct |
| 14 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 15 employed | mark |
| 15 | employed | employ | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 1 Identify | advcl |
| 16 | in | in | ADP | _ | 19 correspondence | case |
| 17 | formal | formal | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 19 correspondence | amod |
| 18 | American | American | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 19 correspondence | amod |
| 19 | correspondence | correspondence | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 employed | obl |
| 20 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 1 Identify | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | identify | imperative | you not said here | the meaning | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent meaning=Theme | ||||
| 2 | convey | participle | the meaning not said here | by the expression; accurately property | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 3 | employ | participle | you not said here | formal American correspondence | vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
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
A person of considerable public importance
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 person | det |
| 2 | person | person | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | of | of | ADP | _ | 6 importance | case |
| 4 | considerable | considerable | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 importance | amod |
| 5 | public | public | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 importance | amod |
| 6 | importance | importance | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 person | nmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2 · ✓ the right answer
A person's romantic partner
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 person | det |
| 2 | person | person | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 partner | nmod:poss |
| 3 | 's | 's | PART | _ | 2 person | case |
| 4 | romantic | romantic | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 partner | amod |
| 5 | partner | partner | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3
A person's eldest son or daughter
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 person | det |
| 2 | person | person | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 son | nmod:poss |
| 3 | 's | 's | PART | _ | 2 person | case |
| 4 | eldest | eld | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 5 son | amod |
| 5 | son | son | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 6 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 7 daughter | cc |
| 7 | daughter | daughter | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 son | conj |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4
A person's principal business associate
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 person | det |
| 2 | person | person | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 associate | nmod:poss |
| 3 | 's | 's | PART | _ | 2 person | case |
| 4 | principal | principal | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 associate | amod |
| 5 | business | business | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 associate | compound |
| 6 | associate | associate | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
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/13-relations-and-family/e1/