Test 4 · ★★ · Soft words for hard things: rudeness and swearing

Mia reckons "pardon my French" means the person is actually speaking French. right?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Mia, person · What happens: reckon, pardon, mean, speak · To what, where: French · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 4 · ★★ 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Mia	Mia	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 reckons	nsubj
2	reckons	reckon	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	"	"	PUNCT	_	4 pardon	punct
4	pardon	pardon	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 means	csubj
5	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 French	nmod:poss
6	French	French	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 pardon	obj
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	4 pardon	punct
8	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 reckons	parataxis
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 person	det
10	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 speaking	nsubj
11	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 speaking	aux
12	actually	actually	ADV	_	13 speaking	advmod
13	speaking	speak	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 means	ccomp
14	French	French	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 speaking	obj
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 reckons	punct
16	right	right	INTJ	_	2 reckons	discourse
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 reckons	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	reckon	present	Mia			vn consider-29.9-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent
2	pardon in a quote	infinitive		my French		vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent french=Theme
3	mean	present				vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
4	speak speech: other	present · progressive	the person	French	actually property	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

Yes, they switched to French

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	4 switched	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Yes	punct
3	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 switched	nsubj
4	switched	switch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	to	to	ADP	_	6 French	case
6	French	French	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 switched	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	switch	past	they		French				vn convert-26.6.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Patient to french=Result

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

No, it means sorry for swearing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	INTJ	Polarity=Neg	4 means	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 means	punct
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 means	nsubj
4	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	sorry	sorry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 means	xcomp
6	for	for	SCONJ	_	7 swearing	mark
7	swearing	swear	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 sorry	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	it					sorry property	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	swear	gerund							vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Yes, it is a French greeting

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	7 greeting	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Yes	punct
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 greeting	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 greeting	cop
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 greeting	det
6	French	French	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 greeting	amod
7	greeting	greeting	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	it	a French greeting					tree rules

Option 4

No, it means "I'm learning French"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	INTJ	Polarity=Neg	4 means	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 No	punct
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 means	nsubj
4	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 learning	punct
6	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	8 learning	nsubj
7	'm	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 learning	aux
8	learning	learn	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 means	ccomp
9	French	French	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 learning	xcomp
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 learning	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	it						vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	learn in a quote	present · progressive	I					french property	vn learn-14-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/t4/