Exam question 4 · Soft words for hard things: animals and pets and money and…

Whereas a local authority engages "pest control" in respect of a rodent infestation, determine the action thereby undertaken.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · What happens: engage, determine, respect · To what, where: pest control, respect, action, rodent infestation

This is exam question 4 of lesson 18 «Soft words for hard things: animals and pets and money and poverty» 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	Whereas	whereas	SCONJ	_	4 authority	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 authority	det
3	local	local	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 authority	amod
4	authority	authority	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 engages	obl
5	engages	engage	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 control	punct
7	pest	pest	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 control	compound
8	control	control	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 engages	obj
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 control	punct
10	in	in	ADP	_	11 respect	case
11	respect	respect	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 control	nmod
12	of	of	ADP	_	15 infestation	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 infestation	det
14	rodent	rodent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 infestation	amod
15	infestation	infestation	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 respect	nmod
16	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 determine	punct
17	determine	determine	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 engages	conj
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 action	det
19	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 determine	obj
20	thereby	thereby	ADV	_	21 undertaken	advmod
21	undertaken	undertaken	ADV	_	17 determine	advmod
22	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 engages	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	engage	present	pest control	in respect of a rodent infestation goal; whereas a local authority	vn involve-107.1 «NP V NP PP.goal»: agent=Agent control=Theme in respect=Goal
2	determine	infinitive	the action	undertaken property	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent action=Topic
3	respect		a rodent infestation		nom respect «cognition transitive»: of=patient

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 right answer

The rodents are killed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 rodents	det
2	rodents	rodent	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 killed	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 killed	aux:pass
4	killed	kill	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	kill	present · passive		the rodents					vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 2

The rodents are enumerated

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 rodents	det
2	rodents	rodent	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 enumerated	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 enumerated	aux:pass
4	enumerated	enumerate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	enumerate	present · passive		the rodents					tree rules

Option 3

The rodents are provided with food

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 rodents	det
2	rodents	rodent	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 provided	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 provided	aux:pass
4	provided	provide	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	with	with	ADP	_	6 food	case
6	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 provided	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	provide	present · passive		the rodents				with food	vn fulfilling-13.4.1-2 «NP V NP-Fulfilling PP.theme»: subject=Recipient with food=Theme

Option 4

The rodents are relocated to parkland

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 rodents	det
2	rodents	rodent	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 relocated	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 relocated	aux:pass
4	relocated	relocate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	to	to	ADP	_	6 parkland	case
6	parkland	parkland	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 relocated	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	relocate	present · passive		the rodents				to parkland	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/18-pets-and-money/e4/