Test 11 · ★★★ · Soft words for hard things: rudeness and swearing
Gossip: "His new boss is not exactly a people person — she shouted at the cleaner." What is she like?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Gossip, person · What happens: not be, shout, be · To what, where: people person, cleaner
This is test 11 · ★★★ of lesson 40 «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: Gossip: "His new boss is not exactly a people person — she shouted at the cleaner."
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gossip | gossip | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 person | nsubj |
| 2 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 12 person | punct |
| 3 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 12 person | punct |
| 4 | His | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 6 boss | nmod:poss |
| 5 | new | new | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 boss | amod |
| 6 | boss | boss | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 person | nsubj |
| 7 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 12 person | cop |
| 8 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 12 person | advmod |
| 9 | exactly | exactly | ADV | _ | 12 person | advmod |
| 10 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 12 person | det |
| 11 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 person | compound |
| 12 | person | person | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 13 | — | - | PUNCT | _ | 15 shouted | punct |
| 14 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 shouted | nsubj |
| 15 | shouted | shout | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 person | acl:relcl |
| 16 | at | at | ADP | _ | 18 cleaner | case |
| 17 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 18 cleaner | det |
| 18 | cleaner | cleaner | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 shouted | obl |
| 19 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 15 shouted | punct |
| 20 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 12 person | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not is a in a quote | present | Gossip | a people person | exactly property | tree rules | |||
| 2 | shout speech: express in a quote | past | person | a people person not said here | the cleaner | vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent person=Topic |
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 is she like?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 4 like | obj |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 like | cop |
| 3 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 like | nsubj |
| 4 | like | like | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 5 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 4 like | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | person | like property | tree rules |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
Good at making friends
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Good | good | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 friends | amod |
| 2 | at | at | SCONJ | _ | 3 making | mark |
| 3 | making | make | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 4 friends | amod |
| 4 | friends | friend | NOUN | Number=Plur | root | root |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | make | gerund | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |
Option 2
Very kind and warm
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Very | very | ADV | _ | 2 kind | advmod |
| 2 | kind | kind | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 3 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 4 warm | cc |
| 4 | warm | warm | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 2 kind | conj |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3
Very shy and quiet
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Very | very | ADV | _ | 2 shy | advmod |
| 2 | shy | shy | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 3 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 4 quiet | cc |
| 4 | quiet | quiet | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 2 shy | conj |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4 · ✓ the right answer
Unfriendly and rude
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unfriendly | unfriendly | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 2 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 3 rude | cc |
| 3 | rude | rude | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 1 Unfriendly | conj |
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/40-with-all-due-respect/t11/