Test 10 · ★★ · Soft words for hard things: rudeness and swearing
"The neighbours were effing and blinding at each other till midnight." What was going on?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: neighbours · What happens: eff, blind, go on · To what, where: each
This is test 10 · ★★ of lesson 39 «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: "The neighbours were effing and blinding at each other till midnight."
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 effing | punct |
| 2 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 neighbours | det |
| 3 | neighbours | neighbour | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 effing | nsubj |
| 4 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 effing | aux |
| 5 | effing | eff | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 6 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 7 blinding | cc |
| 7 | blinding | blind | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 5 effing | conj |
| 8 | at | at | ADP | _ | 9 each | case |
| 9 | each | each | DET | ExtPos=PRON PronType=Rcp | 7 blinding | obl |
| 10 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 9 each | fixed |
| 11 | till | till | ADP | _ | 12 midnight | case |
| 12 | midnight | midnight | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 blinding | obl |
| 13 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 effing | punct |
| 14 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 effing | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | eff in a quote | past · progressive | the neighbours | tree rules | |||||
| 2 | blind in a quote | gerund | the neighbours not said here | each | midnight | 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: What was going on?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 3 going | nsubj |
| 2 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 going | aux |
| 3 | going | go | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 4 | on | on | ADP | _ | 3 going | compound:prt |
| 5 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 3 going | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go on | past · progressive | vn function-105.2.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
An eye test
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | An | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 test | det |
| 2 | eye | eye | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 test | compound |
| 3 | test | test | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2 · ✓ the right answer
A loud argument full of swearing
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 argument | det |
| 2 | loud | loud | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 argument | amod |
| 3 | argument | argument | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 4 | full | full | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 argument | amod |
| 5 | of | of | ADP | _ | 6 swearing | case |
| 6 | swearing | swearing | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 full | obl |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3
A party with loud music and dancing
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 party | det |
| 2 | party | party | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | with | with | ADP | _ | 5 music | case |
| 4 | loud | loud | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 music | amod |
| 5 | music | music | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 party | nmod |
| 6 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 7 dancing | cc |
| 7 | dancing | dancing | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 party | conj |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4
A quiet game of cards
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 game | det |
| 2 | quiet | quiet | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 game | amod |
| 3 | game | game | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 4 | of | of | ADP | _ | 5 cards | case |
| 5 | cards | card | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 game | 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/t10/