Exam question 2 · Soft words for hard things: religion and fate and failure…

Determine the meaning of the expression "suboptimal" as employed in respect of an organisation's annual results.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, organisation · What happens: determine, employ, mean, respect, result · To what, where: meaning, respect, expression, annual results

This is exam question 2 of lesson 32 «Soft words for hard things: religion and fate and failure and mistakes» 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	Determine	determine	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 Determine	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 meaning	nmod
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 suboptimal	punct
8	suboptimal	suboptimal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 expression	amod
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 suboptimal	punct
10	as	as	SCONJ	_	11 employed	mark
11	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Determine	advcl
12	in	in	ADP	_	13 respect	case
13	respect	respect	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 employed	obl
14	of	of	ADP	_	19 results	case
15	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 organisation	det
16	organisation	organisation	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 results	nmod:poss
17	's	's	PART	_	16 organisation	case
18	annual	annual	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 results	amod
19	results	result	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 respect	nmod
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Determine	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	determine	imperative	you not said here	the meaning of the expression		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Topic
2	employ	participle	you not said here		respect of a organisation's annual results	vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	mean			the expression		nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient
4	respect			a organisation's annual results		nom respect «cognition transitive»: of=patient
5	result		a organisation			nom result «phenomenon transitive»: poss=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

The results exceeded all projections

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 results	det
2	results	result	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 exceeded	nsubj
3	exceeded	exceed	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	5 projections	det
5	projections	projection	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 exceeded	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	exceed	past	the results	all projections					vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot projection=Theme

Option 2

The results were withheld from publication

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 results	det
2	results	result	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 withheld	nsubj:pass
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 withheld	aux:pass
4	withheld	withhold	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	from	from	ADP	_	6 publication	case
6	publication	publication	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 withheld	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	withhold	past · passive		the results		publication			tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The results were unsatisfactory

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 results	det
2	results	result	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 unsatisfactory	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 unsatisfactory	cop
4	unsatisfactory	unsatisfactory	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the results					unsatisfactory property	tree rules

Option 4

The results were determined below sea level

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 results	det
2	results	result	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 determined	nsubj:pass
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 determined	aux:pass
4	determined	determine	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	below	below	ADP	_	7 level	case
6	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 level	compound
7	level	level	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 determined	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	determine	past · passive		the results		sea level			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic

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/32-religion-fate-failure/e2/