Exam question 4 · Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes

Determine the meaning of the expression "gone pear-shaped" as employed colloquially in the United Kingdom.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: determine, shape, employ, mean · To what, where: meaning, United Kingdom, expression

This is exam question 4 of lesson 33 «Soft words for hard things: 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 gone	punct
8	gone	gone	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 expression	amod
9	pear	pear	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 shaped	compound
10	-	-	PUNCT	_	11 shaped	punct
11	shaped	shape	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 gone	conj
12	"	"	PUNCT	_	11 shaped	punct
13	as	as	SCONJ	_	14 employed	mark
14	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 shaped	advcl
15	colloquially	colloquially	ADV	_	14 employed	advmod
16	in	in	ADP	_	19 Kingdom	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 Kingdom	det
18	United	United	PROPN	_	19 Kingdom	flat
19	Kingdom	Kingdom	PROPN	Number=Sing	14 employed	obl
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Determine	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	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	shape in a quote	participle	you not said here				vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset
3	employ	participle	you not said here		the United Kingdom	colloquially property	vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
4	mean			the expression			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

Become rounded in form

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Become	become	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	rounded	round	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Become	xcomp
3	in	in	ADP	_	4 form	case
4	form	form	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 rounded	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	imperative	you not said here						tree rules
2	round	participle	you not said here			form			vn bend-45.2 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Gone wrong

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Gone	go	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
2	wrong	wrong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Gone	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	participle						wrong property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

Been supplemented with fruit

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Been	been	ADV	_	2 supplemented	advmod
2	supplemented	supplement	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
3	with	with	ADP	_	4 fruit	case
4	fruit	fruit	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 supplemented	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	supplement	participle						with fruit; been property	tree rules

Option 4

Proceeded according to plan

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Proceeded	proceed	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	according	accord	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	1 Proceeded	xcomp
3	to	to	PART	_	4 plan	mark
4	plan	plan	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 according	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	roles by
1	proceed	past	vn begin-55.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
2	accord	gerund	tree rules
3	plan	to-infinitive	vn intend-61.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: 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.

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