Exam question 4 · Olympiad: reading between the lines ★★★

Identify the instance of British understatement among the following.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, follow, instance · To what, where: instance, British understatement

This is exam question 4 of lesson 42 «Olympiad: reading between the lines ★★★» 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 instance	det
3	instance	instance	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 understatement	case
5	British	British	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 understatement	amod
6	understatement	understatement	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 instance	nmod
7	among	among	ADP	_	9 following	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 following	det
9	following	follow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 Identify	obl
10	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the instance of British understatement	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent instance=Theme
2	follow	gerund			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	instance			British understatement	nom instance «event 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 · ✓ the right answer

"Not ideal", said of a flooded kitchen

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 ideal	punct
2	Not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	3 ideal	advmod
3	ideal	ideal	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 said	ccomp
4	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 ideal	punct
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 ideal	punct
6	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	of	of	ADP	_	10 kitchen	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 kitchen	det
9	flooded	flood	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 kitchen	amod
10	kitchen	kitchen	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 said	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	past						of a flooded kitchen	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	flood	participle							vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 2

"A ton", said of a heavy shopping bag

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 ton	punct
2	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 ton	det
3	ton	ton	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 said	nsubj
4	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 ton	punct
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 ton	punct
6	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	of	of	ADP	_	11 bag	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 bag	det
9	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 bag	amod
10	shopping	shopping	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 bag	compound
11	bag	bag	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 said	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	past	a ton					of a heavy shopping bag	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent

Option 3

"Forever", said of a ten-minute wait

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Forever	punct
2	Forever	forever	ADV	_	5 said	advmod
3	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Forever	punct
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 said	punct
5	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	11 wait	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 wait	det
8	ten	ten	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	10 minute	nummod
9	-	-	PUNCT	_	8 ten	punct
10	minute	minute	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 wait	compound
11	wait	wait	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 said	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	past						of a minute wait; forever property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent

Option 4

"Starving", said an hour before lunch

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Starving	punct
2	Starving	starve	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 said	ccomp
3	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Starving	punct
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 Starving	punct
5	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 hour	det
7	hour	hour	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 said	obj
8	before	before	ADP	_	9 lunch	case
9	lunch	lunch	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 said	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	starve in a quote	gerund							tree rules
2	say speech: assert	past	a hour				before lunch; hour		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic

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/42-olympiad-reading-between-the-lines/e4/