Test 9 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: rudeness and swearing
Grandpa, reading old letters: "Dash it all, I've lost my place!" Which modern word means the same?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Grandpa, I · What happens: read, dash, lose, mean · To what, where: old letters, it, place, same · Speech: someone speaks here
This is test 9 · ★ 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: Grandpa, reading old letters: "Dash it all, I've lost my place!"
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grandpa | grandpa | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 reading | nsubj |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 reading | punct |
| 3 | reading | read | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 4 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 letters | amod |
| 5 | letters | letter | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 reading | obj |
| 6 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 8 Dash | punct |
| 7 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 8 Dash | punct |
| 8 | Dash | dash | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 reading | conj |
| 9 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 Dash | obj |
| 10 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 9 it | det |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 lost | punct |
| 12 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 14 lost | nsubj |
| 13 | 've | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 14 lost | aux |
| 14 | lost | lose | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 3 reading | parataxis |
| 15 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 16 place | nmod:poss |
| 16 | place | place | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 lost | obj |
| 17 | ! | ! | PUNCT | _ | 14 lost | punct |
| 18 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 14 lost | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | read | gerund | Grandpa | old letters | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | dash in a quote | infinitive | Grandpa not said here | it | vn hit-18.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient | ||||
| 3 | lose in a quote | present · perfect | I | my place | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent place=Eventuality |
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: Which modern word means the same?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 4 means | nsubj |
| 2 | modern | modern | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 word | amod |
| 3 | word | word | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 means | nsubj |
| 4 | means | mean | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 same | det |
| 6 | same | same | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 means | obj |
| 7 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 4 means | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | mean | present | the same | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent same=Topic |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
Draw
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Draw | draw | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2
Run
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Run | run | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | run | imperative | you not said here | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
Option 3 · ✓ the right answer
Damn
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Damn | damn | ADV | _ | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4
Hurry
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hurry | hurry | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | hurry | imperative | you not said here | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
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/t9/