Exam question 1 · Olympiad: the euphemism detective ★★★

Identify the expression that does not denote death: "snuffed it", "flatlined", "brown bread", "past his prime".

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, expression · What happens: identify, not denote, snuff, flatlin · To what, where: expression, death · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 1 of lesson 41 «Olympiad: the euphemism detective ★★★» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 expression	det
3	expression	expression	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 denote	nsubj
5	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 denote	aux
6	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	7 denote	advmod
7	denote	denote	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 expression	acl:relcl
8	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 denote	obj
9	:	:	PUNCT	_	11 snuffed	punct
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	11 snuffed	punct
11	snuffed	snuff	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 Identify	parataxis
12	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 snuffed	obj
13	"	"	PUNCT	_	11 snuffed	punct
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 flatlined	punct
15	"	"	PUNCT	_	16 flatlined	punct
16	flatlined	flatlin	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 snuffed	conj
17	"	"	PUNCT	_	16 flatlined	punct
18	,	,	PUNCT	_	21 bread	punct
19	"	"	PUNCT	_	21 bread	punct
20	brown	brown	ADJ	Degree=Pos	21 bread	amod
21	bread	bread	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 snuffed	obl
22	"	"	PUNCT	_	21 bread	punct
23	,	,	PUNCT	_	27 prime	punct
24	"	"	PUNCT	_	27 prime	punct
25	past	past	ADP	_	27 prime	case
26	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	27 prime	nmod:poss
27	prime	prime	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 snuffed	parataxis
28	"	"	PUNCT	_	27 prime	punct
29	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the expression		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP to be ADJ»: agent=Agent expression=Theme clause=Attribute
2	not denote	present · do-support	the expression	death		vn indicate-78 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot death=Topic
3	snuff in a quote	past		death	brown bread obl	tree rules
4	flatlin in a quote	participle				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 · ✓ the right answer

"Past his prime"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	4 prime	punct
2	Past	past	ADP	_	4 prime	case
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 prime	nmod:poss
4	prime	prime	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	4 prime	punct

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

Option 2

"Snuffed it"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Snuffed	punct
2	Snuffed	snuff	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 Snuffed	obj
4	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Snuffed	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	snuff in a quote	past		it					tree rules

Option 3

"Brown bread"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 bread	punct
2	Brown	brown	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 bread	amod
3	bread	bread	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 bread	punct

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

Option 4

"Flatlined"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Flatlined	punct
2	Flatlined	flatlin	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
3	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Flatlined	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	flatlin in a quote	participle							tree rules

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/41-olympiad-euphemism-detective/e1/