Exam question 2 · Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes and stupi…

Ascertain the meaning of the colloquial Australian expression "a sausage short of a barbie" when applied to a person.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, apply, mean · To what, where: meaning, colloquial Australian expression

This is exam question 2 of lesson 35 «Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes and stupidity and madness» 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 meaning	det
3	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	8 expression	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 expression	det
6	colloquial	colloquial	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 expression	compound
7	Australian	Australian	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 expression	amod
8	expression	expression	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 meaning	nmod
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 expression	punct
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 sausage	det
11	sausage	sausage	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 expression	appos
12	short	short	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 sausage	amod
13	of	of	ADP	_	15 barbie	case
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 barbie	det
15	barbie	barbie	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 short	obl
16	"	"	PUNCT	_	15 barbie	punct
17	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	18 applied	advmod
18	applied	apply	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	15 barbie	acl
19	to	to	ADP	_	21 person	case
20	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	21 person	det
21	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 applied	obl
22	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the meaning of the colloquial Australian expression		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Topic
2	apply	participle			to a person	vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	mean			the colloquial Australian 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

The person is an accomplished cook

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 person	det
2	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 cook	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 cook	cop
4	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 cook	det
5	accomplished	accomplish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 cook	amod
6	cook	cook	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	accomplish	participle							vn complete-55.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent
2	is a	present	the person	a accomplished cook					tree rules

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

The person is employed as a butcher

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 person	det
2	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 employed	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 employed	aux:pass
4	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	as	as	ADP	_	7 butcher	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 butcher	det
7	butcher	butcher	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 employed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	employ	present · passive		the person				as a butcher	vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Theme as butcher=Attribute

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The person is foolish or somewhat irrational

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 person	det
2	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 foolish	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 foolish	cop
4	foolish	foolish	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	or	or	CCONJ	_	7 irrational	cc
6	somewhat	somewhat	ADV	_	7 irrational	advmod
7	irrational	irrational	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 foolish	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the person					foolish property	tree rules
2	be		the person not said here					somewhat property	tree rules

Option 4

The person has insufficient provisions for a barbecue

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 person	det
2	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 has	nsubj
3	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	insufficient	insufficient	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 provisions	amod
5	provisions	provision	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 has	obj
6	for	for	ADP	_	8 barbecue	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 barbecue	det
8	barbecue	barbecue	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 provisions	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	the person	insufficient provisions				for a barbecue	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent provision=Patient

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/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/e2/