Test 12 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: rudeness and swearing

Why does someone say "Fudge!" instead of the word it stands for?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: someone, Fudge · What happens: say, stand for · To what, where: Fudge, word · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 12 · ★ of lesson 38 «Soft words for hard things: rudeness and swearing» 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	4 say	advmod
2	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 say	aux
3	someone	someone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	4 say	nsubj
4	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 Fudge	punct
6	Fudge	fudge	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 say	obj
7	!	!	PUNCT	_	6 Fudge	punct
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	6 Fudge	punct
9	instead	instead	ADV	ExtPos=ADP	12 word	case
10	of	of	ADP	_	9 instead	fixed
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 word	det
12	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 say	obl
13	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 stands	nsubj
14	stands	stand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 word	acl:relcl
15	for	for	ADP	_	14 stands	compound:prt
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 say	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present · do-support	someone	Fudge				instead the word	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent fudge=Topic
2	stand for	present	Fudge	the word not said here					vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer word=Stimulus

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

Because it is the f-word in French

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	7 word	mark
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 word	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 word	cop
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 word	det
5	f	f	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 word	compound
6	-	-	PUNCT	_	5 f	punct
7	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
8	in	in	ADP	_	9 French	case
9	French	French	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 word	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	it	the f word		French			tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

To show anger without using a strong swear word

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 show	mark
2	show	show	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	anger	anger	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 show	obj
4	without	without	SCONJ	_	5 using	mark
5	using	use	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 show	advcl
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 word	det
7	strong	strong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 word	amod
8	swear	swear	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 word	compound
9	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 using	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	show	to-infinitive		anger					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent anger=Recipient
2	use	gerund		a strong swear word					vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Patient

Option 3

Because fudge is a stronger swear

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	ADP	ExtPos=ADP	2 fudge	case
2	fudge	fudge	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 swear	obl
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 swear	cop
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 swear	det
5	stronger	strong	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	6 swear	amod
6	swear	swear	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present		a stronger swear				because fudge	tree rules

Option 4

Because they are thinking about sweets

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	4 thinking	mark
2	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 thinking	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 thinking	aux
4	thinking	think	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	about	about	ADP	_	6 sweets	case
6	sweets	sweet	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 thinking	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	think speech: other	present · progressive	they					about sweets	vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about sweet=Topic

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/38-drat-and-the-f-word/t12/