Exam question 3 · Soft words for hard things: rudeness and swearing

Select the response that is consistent with the established meaning of the expression "per my last email" in correspondence.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, response, my · What happens: select, be, establish, mean, email · To what, where: response, expression, correspondence

This is exam question 3 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 consistent	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 consistent	cop
6	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 response	acl:relcl
7	with	with	ADP	_	10 meaning	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 meaning	det
9	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 meaning	amod
10	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 consistent	obl
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 expression	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 expression	det
13	expression	expression	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 meaning	nmod
14	"	"	PUNCT	_	18 email	punct
15	per	per	ADP	_	18 email	case
16	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	18 email	nmod:poss
17	last	last	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 email	amod
18	email	email	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 expression	nmod
19	"	"	PUNCT	_	18 email	punct
20	in	in	ADP	_	21 correspondence	case
21	correspondence	correspondence	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 email	nmod
22	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response			vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	is	present	the response			with the established meaning of the expression per my last email in correspondence; consistent property	tree rules
3	establish	participle					vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
4	mean			the expression per my last email in correspondence			nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient
5	email in a quote		my		correspondence		nom email «communication transitive»: poss=agent in=place

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 sender requests a prompt reply by return

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 sender	det
2	sender	sender	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 requests	nsubj
3	requests	request	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 reply	det
5	prompt	prompt	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 reply	amod
6	reply	reply	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 requests	obj
7	by	by	ADP	_	8 return	case
8	return	return	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 requests	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	request	present	the sender	a prompt reply				by return	vn beg-58.2 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent reply=Recipient

Option 2

The sender intends to cease all correspondence forthwith

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 sender	det
2	sender	sender	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 intends	nsubj
3	intends	intend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 cease	mark
5	cease	cease	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 intends	xcomp
6	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 correspondence	det
7	correspondence	correspondence	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 cease	obj
8	forthwith	forthwith	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 cease	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	intend	present	the sender						vn intend-61.2-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	cease not said to happen	to-infinitive	the sender not said here	all correspondence				forthwith property	vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality correspondence=Eventuality

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The recipient has failed to read prior correspondence attentively

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 recipient	det
2	recipient	recipient	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 failed	nsubj
3	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 failed	aux
4	failed	fail	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 read	mark
6	read	read	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 failed	xcomp
7	prior	prior	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 correspondence	amod
8	correspondence	correspondence	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 read	obj
9	attentively	attentively	ADV	_	6 read	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fail	present · perfect	the recipient						vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
2	not read	to-infinitive	the recipient not said here	prior correspondence				attentively property	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent correspondence=Topic

Option 4

The previous correspondence was lost in transmission

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 correspondence	det
2	previous	previous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 correspondence	amod
3	correspondence	correspondence	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 lost	nsubj:pass
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 lost	aux:pass
5	lost	lose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 transmission	case
7	transmission	transmission	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 lost	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lose	past · passive		the previous correspondence		transmission			vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality

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/e3/