Exam question 4 · Soft words for hard things: illness, disability and the body

Ascertain the plain meaning of the old-fashioned expression "in the family way".

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, mean · To what, where: plain meaning, fashioned expression

This is exam question 4 of lesson 4 «Soft words for hard things: illness, disability and the body» 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	4 meaning	det
3	plain	plain	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 meaning	amod
4	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	10 expression	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 expression	det
7	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 fashioned	amod
8	-	-	PUNCT	_	7 old	punct
9	fashioned	fashioned	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 expression	amod
10	expression	expression	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 meaning	nmod
11	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 expression	punct
12	in	in	ADP	_	15 way	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 way	det
14	family	family	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 way	compound
15	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 expression	nmod
16	"	"	PUNCT	_	15 way	punct
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 plain meaning of the fashioned expression in the family way					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Topic
2	mean			the fashioned expression in the family way					nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=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.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

Obstructing the household

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Obstructing	obstruct	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 household	det
3	household	household	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Obstructing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	obstruct	gerund		the household					vn discourage-64.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer household=Eventuality

Option 2

Exhibiting a family resemblance

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Exhibiting	exhibit	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 resemblance	det
3	family	family	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 resemblance	compound
4	resemblance	resemblance	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Exhibiting	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	exhibit	gerund		a family resemblance					vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent resemblance=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Pregnant

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Pregnant	pregnant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

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

Option 4

Residing with one's relatives

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Residing	reside	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	with	with	ADP	_	5 relatives	case
3	one	one	PRON	Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 relatives	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 one	case
5	relatives	relative	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Residing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reside	gerund						with one's relatives	vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme with relative=Location

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/4-illness-disability-and-babies/e4/