Exam question 1 · Soft words for hard things: death and dying, illness and t…

Identify the plain meaning of the designation "funeral director".

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, mean · To what, where: plain meaning, designation

This is exam question 1 of lesson 3 «Soft words for hard things: death and dying, illness and the body» 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	plain	plain	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 meaning	amod
4	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 designation	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 designation	det
7	designation	designation	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 meaning	nmod
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 director	punct
9	funeral	funeral	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 director	compound
10	director	director	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 designation	appos
11	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 director	punct
12	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the plain meaning of the designation					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent meaning=Theme
2	mean			the designation					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

A cleric who conducts religious services

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 cleric	det
2	cleric	cleric	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 conducts	nsubj
4	conducts	conduct	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 cleric	acl:relcl
5	religious	religious	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 services	amod
6	services	service	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 conducts	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	conduct	present	a cleric	religious services					vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent service=Theme

Option 2

An official who registers deaths

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 official	det
2	official	official	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 registers	nsubj
4	registers	register	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 official	acl:relcl
5	deaths	death	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 registers	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	register	present	a official	deaths					vn patent-101 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent death=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

An undertaker who arranges funerals

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 undertaker	det
2	undertaker	undertaker	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 arranges	nsubj
4	arranges	arrange	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 undertaker	acl:relcl
5	funerals	funeral	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 arranges	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	arrange	present	a undertaker	funerals					vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent funeral=Product

Option 4

A person who directs films concerning death

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 person	det
2	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 directs	nsubj
4	directs	direct	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 person	acl:relcl
5	films	film	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 directs	obj
6	concerning	concerning	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 death	amod
7	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 directs	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	direct	present	a person	films					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/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/e1/