Test 4 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: rudeness and swearing
"What the heck is that smell?" How strong is "heck"?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: heck · What happens: be · To what, where: smell, strong heck
This is test 4 · ★ 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
Sentence 1: "What the heck is that smell?"
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 smell | punct |
| 2 | What | what | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 heck | det |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 heck | det |
| 4 | heck | heck | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 smell | nsubj |
| 5 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 7 smell | cop |
| 6 | that | that | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 7 smell | det |
| 7 | smell | smell | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 8 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 7 smell | punct |
| 9 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 smell | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a in a quote | present | what heck | that smell | tree rules |
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: How strong is "heck"?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | How | how | ADV | PronType=Int | 2 strong | advmod |
| 2 | strong | strong | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 heck | amod |
| 3 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 heck | cop |
| 4 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 heck | punct |
| 5 | heck | heck | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 6 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 heck | punct |
| 7 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 5 heck | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a in a quote | present | strong heck | tree rules |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
Very strong: worse than any word
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Very | very | ADV | _ | 2 strong | advmod |
| 2 | strong | strong | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 3 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 4 worse | punct |
| 4 | worse | bad | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 2 strong | conj |
| 5 | than | than | ADP | _ | 7 word | case |
| 6 | any | any | DET | PronType=Ind | 7 word | det |
| 7 | word | word | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 strong | obl |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2 · ✓ the right answer
Mild: it stands in for "hell"
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mild | mild | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 2 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 4 stands | punct |
| 3 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 stands | nsubj |
| 4 | stands | stand | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 1 Mild | acl:relcl |
| 5 | in | in | ADP | _ | 4 stands | compound:prt |
| 6 | for | for | ADP | _ | 8 hell | case |
| 7 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 8 hell | punct |
| 8 | hell | hell | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 stands | obl |
| 9 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 8 hell | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | stand in | present | Mild | Mild not said here | for hell | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer mild=Stimulus for hell=Attribute |
Option 3
Not a swear at all: it means "neck"
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 3 swear | advmod |
| 2 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 swear | det |
| 3 | swear | swear | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 4 | at | at | ADP | _ | 5 all | case |
| 5 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 3 swear | nmod |
| 6 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 8 means | punct |
| 7 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 means | nsubj |
| 8 | means | mean | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 swear | parataxis |
| 9 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 10 neck | punct |
| 10 | neck | neck | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 means | obj |
| 11 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 10 neck | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | mean | present | swear | neck | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent neck=Topic |
Option 4
Medium: it is a word for a farm
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Medium | medium | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 2 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 6 word | punct |
| 3 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 6 word | nsubj |
| 4 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 6 word | cop |
| 5 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 6 word | det |
| 6 | word | word | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Medium | appos |
| 7 | for | for | ADP | _ | 9 farm | case |
| 8 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 9 farm | det |
| 9 | farm | farm | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 word | nmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | present | Medium | a word | for a farm | 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/38-drat-and-the-f-word/t4/