Exam question 4 · Soft words for hard things: stupidity and madness

Which of the following expressions most accurately characterises a person as having become insane?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris, become · To what, where: person

This is exam question 4 of lesson 36 «Soft words for hard things: 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 expressions	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 expressions	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 expressions	amod
5	expressions	expression	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 person	det
10	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	as	as	SCONJ	_	13 become	mark
12	having	have	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	13 become	aux
13	become	become	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	8 characterises	advcl
14	insane	insane	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 become	xcomp
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present	a person	of the following expressions; accurately property	tree rules
3	become	gerund · perfect		insane property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=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

He is not the most academic

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 academic	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 academic	cop
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	6 academic	advmod
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 academic	det
5	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	6 academic	advmod
6	academic	academic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not is	present	He					academic property	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

He has lost his marbles

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 lost	nsubj
2	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 lost	aux
3	lost	lose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 marbles	nmod:poss
5	marbles	marble	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 lost	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lose	present · perfect	He	his marbles					vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent marble=Eventuality

Option 3

He marches to a different drum

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 marches	nsubj
2	marches	march	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	ADP	_	6 drum	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 drum	det
5	different	different	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 drum	amod
6	drum	drum	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 marches	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	march	present	He			a different drum			vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to drum=Destination

Option 4

He is a real character

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 character	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 character	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 character	det
4	real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 character	amod
5	character	character	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	He	a real character					tree rules

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/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/e4/