Exam question 3 · Soft words for hard things: rudeness and swearing

Ascertain the function of the expression "pardon my French" when appended to an utterance.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, append · To what, where: function

This is exam question 3 of lesson 39 «Soft words for hard things: rudeness and swearing» 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 function	det
3	function	function	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 expression	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 expression	det
6	expression	expression	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 function	nmod
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 French	punct
8	pardon	pardon	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 French	compound
9	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 French	nmod:poss
10	French	French	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 expression	appos
11	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 French	punct
12	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	13 appended	advmod
13	appended	append	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Ascertain	advcl
14	to	to	ADP	_	16 utterance	case
15	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 utterance	det
16	utterance	utterance	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 appended	obl
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the function of the expression					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent function=Topic
2	append	participle	you not said here					to a utterance	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.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

A request for translation

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 request	det
2	request	request	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	for	for	ADP	_	4 translation	case
4	translation	translation	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 request	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

An apology for profanity

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 apology	det
2	apology	apology	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	for	for	ADP	_	4 profanity	case
4	profanity	profanity	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 apology	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

A declaration of nationality

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 declaration	det
2	declaration	declaration	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 nationality	case
4	nationality	nationality	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 declaration	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	declare			nationality					nom declaration «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

An apology for a foreign accent

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 apology	det
2	apology	apology	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	for	for	ADP	_	6 accent	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 accent	det
5	foreign	foreign	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 accent	amod
6	accent	accent	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 apology	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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/39-pardon-my-french/e3/