Exam question 4 · Soft words for hard things: rudeness and swearing

Select the response that is consistent with the established facts concerning the term "a four-letter word".

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, response, established facts · What happens: select, be, establish, concern · To what, where: response, term

This is exam question 4 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 consistent	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 consistent	cop
6	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 response	acl:relcl
7	with	with	ADP	_	10 facts	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 facts	det
9	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 facts	amod
10	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 consistent	obl
11	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 facts	acl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 term	det
13	term	term	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 concerning	obj
14	"	"	PUNCT	_	19 word	punct
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	19 word	det
16	four	four	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	18 letter	nummod
17	-	-	PUNCT	_	16 four	punct
18	letter	letter	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 word	compound
19	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 term	appos
20	"	"	PUNCT	_	19 word	punct
21	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response		vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	is	present	the response		with the established facts; consistent property	tree rules
3	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
4	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the term		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus term=Experiencer

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 · ✓ the right answer

It denotes a swear word

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 denotes	nsubj
2	denotes	denote	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 word	det
4	swear	swear	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 word	compound
5	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 denotes	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	denote	present	It	a swear word					vn indicate-78 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot word=Topic

Option 2

It denotes an abbreviation

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 denotes	nsubj
2	denotes	denote	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 abbreviation	det
4	abbreviation	abbreviation	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 denotes	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	denote	present	It	a abbreviation					vn indicate-78 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot abbreviation=Topic

Option 3

It denotes a term of affection

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 denotes	nsubj
2	denotes	denote	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 term	det
4	term	term	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 denotes	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 affection	case
6	affection	affection	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 term	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	denote	present	It	a term of affection					vn indicate-78 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot term=Topic
2	term			affection					nom term «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

It denotes any word of four letters

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 denotes	nsubj
2	denotes	denote	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	4 word	det
4	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 denotes	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 letters	case
6	four	four	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 letters	nummod
7	letters	letter	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 word	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	denote	present	It	any word of four letters					vn indicate-78 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot word=Topic
2	word			four letters					nom word «communication transitive»: of=patient

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/e4/