Test 3 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: relations and family
Uncle at a barbecue: "Ask the boss, mate", pointing at his wife. What is "the boss" here?
Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: Uncle, boss · What happens: ask, point, be · To what, where: boss
This is test 3 · ★ of lesson 13 «Soft words for hard things: relations and family» 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: Uncle at a barbecue: "Ask the boss, mate", pointing at his wife.
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Uncle | uncle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 Ask | nsubj |
| 2 | at | at | ADP | _ | 4 barbecue | case |
| 3 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 4 barbecue | det |
| 4 | barbecue | barbecue | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Uncle | nmod |
| 5 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 7 Ask | punct |
| 6 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 Ask | punct |
| 7 | Ask | ask | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 boss | det |
| 9 | boss | boss | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 Ask | obj |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 11 mate | punct |
| 11 | mate | mate | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 boss | conj |
| 12 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 9 boss | punct |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 pointing | punct |
| 14 | pointing | point | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 7 Ask | advcl |
| 15 | at | at | ADP | _ | 17 wife | case |
| 16 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 17 wife | nmod:poss |
| 17 | wife | wife | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 pointing | obl |
| 18 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 7 Ask | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ask speech: ask in a quote | infinitive | Uncle at a barbecue | the boss and mate | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent boss=Recipient | ||||
| 2 | point | gerund | Uncle at a barbecue not said here | at Uncle's wife | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V»: 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.
Sentence 2: What is "the boss" here?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | root | root |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 1 What | cop |
| 3 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 boss | punct |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 boss | det |
| 5 | boss | boss | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 What | nsubj |
| 6 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 here | punct |
| 7 | here | here | ADV | PronType=Dem | 5 boss | advmod |
| 8 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 1 What | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | present | the boss | tree rules |
The options
Option 1
His old mum
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | His | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 3 mum | nmod:poss |
| 2 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 mum | amod |
| 3 | mum | mum | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2
The cook at the grill
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 cook | det |
| 2 | cook | cook | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | at | at | ADP | _ | 5 grill | case |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 grill | det |
| 5 | grill | grill | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 cook | nmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer
His wife
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | His | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 2 wife | nmod:poss |
| 2 | wife | wife | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4
His manager
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | His | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 2 manager | nmod:poss |
| 2 | manager | manager | 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/t3/