Exam question 2 · Soft words for hard things: lying and honesty and drinking…

Identify the principal meaning of "a misstatement" as acknowledged by an official spokesman.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, acknowledge, mean · To what, where: principal meaning, misstatement

This is exam question 2 of lesson 29 «Soft words for hard things: lying and honesty and drinking and drugs» 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	4 meaning	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 meaning	amod
4	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 misstatement	case
6	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 misstatement	punct
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 misstatement	det
8	misstatement	misstatement	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 meaning	nmod
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 misstatement	punct
10	as	as	SCONJ	_	11 acknowledged	mark
11	acknowledged	acknowledge	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Identify	advcl
12	by	by	ADP	_	15 spokesman	case
13	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 spokesman	det
14	official	official	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 spokesman	amod
15	spokesman	spokesman	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 acknowledged	obl
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal meaning of a misstatement		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent meaning=Theme
2	acknowledge	participle	you not said here		by a official spokesman	vn confess-37.10 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent
3	mean			a misstatement		nom meaning «communication 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

A lie or false claim

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 lie	det
2	lie	lie	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	or	or	CCONJ	_	5 claim	cc
4	false	false	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 claim	amod
5	claim	claim	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 lie	conj

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2

An address written incorrectly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 address	det
2	address	address	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 written	obj
3	written	write	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	incorrectly	incorrectly	ADV	_	3 written	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	write	participle		a address				incorrectly property	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent address=Theme

Option 3

A typographical error

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 error	det
2	typographical	typographical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 error	amod
3	error	error	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

A statement delivered at excessive speed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 statement	det
2	statement	statement	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	delivered	deliver	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 statement	acl
4	at	at	ADP	_	6 speed	case
5	excessive	excessive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 speed	amod
6	speed	speed	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 delivered	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	deliver	participle		a statement not said here		excessive speed			vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: 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/29-lying-and-drinking/e2/