Exam question 4 · Soft words for hard things: crime, prison and the police a…

Ascertain the meaning of "stretching the truth".

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, meaning · What happens: ascertain, stretch · To what, where: meaning, truth

This is exam question 4 of lesson 28 «Soft words for hard things: crime, prison and the police and lying and honesty» 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	Ascertain	ascertain	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 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	SCONJ	_	6 stretching	mark
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 stretching	punct
6	stretching	stretch	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 meaning	acl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 truth	det
8	truth	truth	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 stretching	obj
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 stretching	punct
10	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the meaning					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Topic
2	stretch in a quote	gerund	the meaning not said here	the truth					vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent truth=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

Exaggerating to the point of lying

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Exaggerating	exaggerate	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	to	to	ADP	_	4 point	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 point	det
4	point	point	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Exaggerating	obl
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 lying	case
6	lying	lying	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 point	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	exaggerate	gerund						to the point of lying	tree rules
2	point			lying					nom point «cognition transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

Narrating a lengthy true account

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Narrating	narrate	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 account	det
3	lengthy	lengthy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 account	amod
4	true	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 account	amod
5	account	account	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Narrating	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	narrate speech: other	gerund		a lengthy true account					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent account=Topic

Option 3

Performing exercises whilst conversing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Performing	perform	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	exercises	exercise	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Performing	obj
3	whilst	whilst	SCONJ	_	4 conversing	mark
4	conversing	converse	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 Performing	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	perform	gerund		exercises					vn performance-26.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent exercise=Theme
2	converse speech: other	gerund							vn chit_chat-37.6 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

Speaking in a deliberately slow manner

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Speaking	speak	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	in	in	ADP	_	6 manner	case
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 manner	det
4	deliberately	deliberately	ADV	_	5 slow	advmod
5	slow	slow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 manner	amod
6	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Speaking	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	speak speech: other	gerund				a slow manner			vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/28-stealing-and-lying/e4/