Exam question 4 · Soft words for hard things: religion and fate and failure…

Ascertain the referent of the phrase "the good book" as customarily employed in English-speaking communities.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, employ, speak · To what, where: referent, speaking communities · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 4 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	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 phrase	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 phrase	det
6	phrase	phrase	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 referent	nmod
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 book	punct
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 book	det
9	good	good	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 book	amod
10	book	book	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 phrase	appos
11	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 book	punct
12	as	as	SCONJ	_	14 employed	mark
13	customarily	customarily	ADV	_	14 employed	advmod
14	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Ascertain	advcl
15	in	in	ADP	_	19 communities	case
16	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	18 speaking	compound
17	-	-	PUNCT	_	16 English	punct
18	speaking	speak	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	19 communities	amod
19	communities	community	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 employed	obl
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the referent of the phrase			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent referent=Topic
2	employ	participle	you not said here		speaking communities	customarily property	vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	speak speech: other	gerund					vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: 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 ledger of charitable donations

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 ledger	det
2	ledger	ledger	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 donations	case
4	charitable	charitable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 donations	amod
5	donations	donation	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 ledger	nmod

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

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The Bible

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

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

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

Option 3

A volume of exemplary moral fiction

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 volume	det
2	volume	volume	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 fiction	case
4	exemplary	exemplary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 fiction	amod
5	moral	moral	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 fiction	amod
6	fiction	fiction	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 volume	nmod

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

Option 4

A dictionary approved by the examination board

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 dictionary	det
2	dictionary	dictionary	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	approved	approve	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 dictionary	acl
4	by	by	ADP	_	7 board	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 board	det
6	examination	examination	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 board	compound
7	board	board	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 approved	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	approve	participle		a dictionary not said here				by the examination board	vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer

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/e4/