Exam question 2 · Soft words for hard things: rudeness and swearing

Ascertain the meaning most accurately conveyed by the prefatory phrase "with all due respect".

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, convey · To what, where: meaning

This is exam question 2 of lesson 40 «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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 meaning	det
3	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	5 accurately	advmod
5	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	6 conveyed	advmod
6	conveyed	convey	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 meaning	acl
7	by	by	ADP	_	10 phrase	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 phrase	det
9	prefatory	prefatory	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 phrase	amod
10	phrase	phrase	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 conveyed	obl
11	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 phrase	punct
12	with	with	ADP	_	15 respect	case
13	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	15 respect	det
14	due	due	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 respect	amod
15	respect	respect	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 phrase	nmod
16	"	"	PUNCT	_	15 respect	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 meaning					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Topic
2	convey	participle		the meaning not said here				by the prefatory phrase with all due respect; accurately property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent

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 speaker is about to tender an apology

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 speaker	det
2	speaker	speaker	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 about	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 about	cop
4	about	about	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 tender	mark
6	tender	tender	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 about	xcomp
7	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 apology	det
8	apology	apology	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 tender	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the speaker					about property	tree rules
2	tender	to-infinitive	the speaker not said here	a apology					tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The speaker is about to express disagreement

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 speaker	det
2	speaker	speaker	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 about	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 about	cop
4	about	about	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 express	mark
6	express	express	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 about	xcomp
7	disagreement	disagreement	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 express	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the speaker					about property	tree rules
2	express	to-infinitive	the speaker not said here	disagreement					vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent disagreement=Theme

Option 3

The speaker is about to make a request

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 speaker	det
2	speaker	speaker	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 about	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 about	cop
4	about	about	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 make	mark
6	make	make	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 about	xcomp
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 request	det
8	request	request	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 make	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the speaker					about property	tree rules
2	make	to-infinitive	the speaker not said here	a request					vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset request=Product

Option 4

The speaker is about to express admiration

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 speaker	det
2	speaker	speaker	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 about	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 about	cop
4	about	about	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 express	mark
6	express	express	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 about	xcomp
7	admiration	admiration	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 express	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the speaker					about property	tree rules
2	express	to-infinitive	the speaker not said here	admiration					vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent admiration=Theme

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/40-with-all-due-respect/e2/