Exam question 4 · Soft words for hard things: relations and family

Which of the following most accurately characterises a remark by a parent that she and her sibling are "not close"?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: parent · What happens: follow, characteris, not be · To what, where: remark, parent

This is exam question 4 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	SCONJ	_	7 characterises	mark
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 characterises	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 characterises	csubj
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	root	root
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 remark	det
9	remark	remark	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 characterises	obj
10	by	by	ADP	_	12 parent	case
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 parent	det
12	parent	parent	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 characterises	obl
13	that	that	SCONJ	_	21 close	mark
14	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	21 close	nsubj
15	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 sibling	cc
16	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 sibling	nmod:poss
17	sibling	sibling	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 she	conj
18	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	21 close	cop
19	"	"	PUNCT	_	21 close	punct
20	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	21 close	advmod
21	close	close	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 parent	acl:relcl
22	"	"	PUNCT	_	21 close	punct
23	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		a remark	by a parent; accurately property	tree rules
3	not is in a quote	present	parent	a parent not said here	close property	tree rules

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

The siblings were not born as twins

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 siblings	det
2	siblings	sibling	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 born	nsubj:pass
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 born	aux:pass
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 born	advmod
5	born	bear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	as	as	ADP	_	7 twins	case
7	twins	twin	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 born	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not bear	past · passive		the siblings				as twins	vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 2

The siblings are not related by blood

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 siblings	det
2	siblings	sibling	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 related	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 related	aux:pass
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 related	advmod
5	related	relate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	by	by	ADP	_	7 blood	case
7	blood	blood	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 related	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not relate	present · passive		the siblings				by blood	vn involve-107.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The siblings have a poor or distant relationship

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 siblings	det
2	siblings	sibling	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 have	nsubj
3	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 relationship	det
5	poor	poor	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 relationship	amod
6	or	or	CCONJ	_	7 distant	cc
7	distant	distant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 poor	conj
8	relationship	relationship	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 have	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	the siblings	a poor relationship					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent relationship=Patient

Option 4

The siblings reside at a considerable distance

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 siblings	det
2	siblings	sibling	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 reside	nsubj
3	reside	reside	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	at	at	ADP	_	7 distance	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 distance	det
6	considerable	considerable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 distance	amod
7	distance	distance	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 reside	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reside	present	the siblings					at a considerable distance	vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at distance=Location

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/e4/