Test 11 · ★★ · Soft words for hard things: rudeness and swearing
"excuse my language but that bloomin' dog — sorry, that lovely dog — ate my shoe." What does the speaker really feel?
Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, speaker · What happens: excuse, eat, feel · To what, where: language, shoe
This is test 11 · ★★ 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: "excuse my language but that bloomin' dog — sorry, that lovely dog — ate my shoe."
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 2 excuse | punct |
| 2 | excuse | excuse | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 4 language | nmod:poss |
| 4 | language | language | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 excuse | obj |
| 5 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 9 dog | cc |
| 6 | that | that | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 9 dog | det |
| 7 | bloomin | bloomin | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 dog | compound |
| 8 | ' | ' | PUNCT | _ | 7 bloomin | punct |
| 9 | dog | dog | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 language | conj |
| 10 | — | - | PUNCT | _ | 11 sorry | punct |
| 11 | sorry | sorry | INTJ | _ | 2 excuse | discourse |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 dog | punct |
| 13 | that | that | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 15 dog | det |
| 14 | lovely | lovely | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 15 dog | amod |
| 15 | dog | dog | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 sorry | conj |
| 16 | — | - | PUNCT | _ | 17 ate | punct |
| 17 | ate | eat | VERB | Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 excuse | conj |
| 18 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 19 shoe | nmod:poss |
| 19 | shoe | shoe | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 ate | obj |
| 20 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 excuse | punct |
| 21 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 2 excuse | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | excuse in a quote | imperative | you not said here | my language but that bloomin dog | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent language=Theme | ||||
| 2 | eat in a quote | past | you not said here | my shoe | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shoe=Patient |
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 does the speaker really feel?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 6 feel | obj |
| 2 | does | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 6 feel | aux |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 speaker | det |
| 4 | speaker | speaker | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 feel | nsubj |
| 5 | really | really | ADV | _ | 6 feel | advmod |
| 6 | feel | feel | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 7 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 6 feel | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | feel | present · do-support | the speaker | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Theme |
The options
Option 1 · ✓ the right answer
Annoyed with the dog
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Annoyed | annoy | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 2 | with | with | ADP | _ | 4 dog | case |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 dog | det |
| 4 | dog | dog | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Annoyed | obl:agent |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | annoy | participle | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
Option 2 · ← Mova's choice
Proud of the dog
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Proud | Proud | PROPN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 2 | of | of | ADP | _ | 4 dog | case |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 dog | det |
| 4 | dog | dog | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Proud | nmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3
Scared of the dog
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scared | scared | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 2 | of | of | ADP | _ | 4 dog | case |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 dog | det |
| 4 | dog | dog | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Scared | obl |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4
Happy about the shoe
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Happy | happy | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 2 | about | about | ADP | _ | 4 shoe | case |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 shoe | det |
| 4 | shoe | shoe | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Happy | obl |
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/t11/