Exam question 3 · Soft words for hard things: drinking and drugs and religio…

Ascertain the referent of the expression "Old Nick" as employed in traditional British narrative.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, employ · To what, where: referent, traditional British narrative

This is exam question 3 of lesson 31 «Soft words for hard things: drinking and drugs and religion and fate» 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 referent	det
3	referent	referent	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 expression	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 expression	det
6	expression	expression	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 referent	nmod
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 Nick	punct
8	Old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 Nick	amod
9	Nick	Nick	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 expression	appos
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 Nick	punct
11	as	as	SCONJ	_	12 employed	mark
12	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Ascertain	advcl
13	in	in	ADP	_	16 narrative	case
14	traditional	traditional	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 narrative	amod
15	British	British	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 narrative	amod
16	narrative	narrative	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 employed	obl
17	.	.	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 referent of the expression					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent referent=Topic
2	employ	participle	you not said here			traditional British narrative			vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: 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.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

A notorious highwayman of the eighteenth century

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 highwayman	det
2	notorious	notorious	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 highwayman	amod
3	highwayman	highwayman	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 century	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 century	det
6	eighteenth	eighteenth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 century	amod
7	century	century	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 highwayman	nmod

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

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The Devil

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Devil	det
2	Devil	Devil	PROPN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

Option 3

Saint Nicholas, otherwise known as Father Christmas

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Saint	Saint	PROPN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	Nicholas	Nicholas	PROPN	Number=Sing	1 Saint	flat
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 known	punct
4	otherwise	otherwise	ADV	_	5 known	advmod
5	known	know	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Saint	acl
6	as	as	ADP	_	8 Christmas	case
7	Father	Father	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 Christmas	flat
8	Christmas	Christmas	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 known	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	know	participle		Saint not said here				as Father Christmas; otherwise property	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer as christmas=Attribute

Option 4

An elderly agricultural labourer

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 labourer	det
2	elderly	elderly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 labourer	amod
3	agricultural	agricultural	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 labourer	amod
4	labourer	labourer	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/31-drinking-drugs-religion-fate/e3/