Test 1 · Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes
A school letter: "We regret to inform you that your application was unsuccessful." What does the family learn?
Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: We, application, your, family · What happens: regret, inform, be, apply, learn · To what, where: school letter, you
This is test 1 of lesson 34 «Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes» of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school. 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
Sentence 1: A school letter: "We regret to inform you that your application was unsuccessful."
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 letter | det |
| 2 | school | school | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 letter | compound |
| 3 | letter | letter | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 4 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 7 regret | punct |
| 5 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 regret | punct |
| 6 | We | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 7 regret | nsubj |
| 7 | regret | regret | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 letter | acl:relcl |
| 8 | to | to | PART | _ | 9 inform | mark |
| 9 | inform | inform | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 7 regret | xcomp |
| 10 | you | you | PRON | Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs | 9 inform | iobj |
| 11 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 15 unsuccessful | mark |
| 12 | your | your | PRON | Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 13 application | nmod:poss |
| 13 | application | application | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 unsuccessful | nsubj |
| 14 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 15 unsuccessful | cop |
| 15 | unsuccessful | unsuccessful | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 9 inform | advcl |
| 16 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 7 regret | punct |
| 17 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 regret | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | regret in a quote | present | We | a school letter not said here | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | inform speech: other in a quote | to-infinitive | We not said here | you | vn tell-37.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient | ||||
| 3 | is in a quote | past | your application | unsuccessful property | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | apply in a quote | your | nom application «act intransitive»: 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.
Sentence 2: What does the family learn?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 5 learn | obj |
| 2 | does | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 learn | aux |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 family | det |
| 4 | family | family | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 learn | nsubj |
| 5 | learn | learn | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 6 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 5 learn | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | learn | present · do-support | the family | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Topic |
The options
Option 1
They must write again next week
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 write | nsubj |
| 2 | must | must | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 3 write | aux |
| 3 | write | write | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 4 | again | again | ADV | _ | 3 write | advmod |
| 5 | next | next | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 week | amod |
| 6 | week | week | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 write | obl:unmarked |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | write | must | They | again; week | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
Option 2
The child got a place
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 child | det |
| 2 | child | child | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 got | nsubj |
| 3 | got | get | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 5 place | det |
| 5 | place | place | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 got | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | get | past | the child | a place | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer place=Stimulus |
Option 3 · ← Mova's choice
The letter was sent by mistake
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 letter | det |
| 2 | letter | letter | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 sent | nsubj:pass |
| 3 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 sent | aux:pass |
| 4 | sent | send | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 5 | by | by | ADP | _ | 6 mistake | case |
| 6 | mistake | mistake | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 sent | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | send | past · passive | mistake | the letter | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme |
Option 4 · ✓ the right answer
The child did not get a place
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 child | det |
| 2 | child | child | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 get | nsubj |
| 3 | did | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 get | aux |
| 4 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 5 get | advmod |
| 5 | get | get | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 6 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 7 place | det |
| 7 | place | place | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 get | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not get | past · do-support | the child | a place | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer place=Stimulus |
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/34-failure-and-mistakes/t1/