Exam question 1 · Soft words for hard things: illness, disability and the body

Identify the plain meaning of the expression "in a comfortable condition" as employed in a hospital bulletin.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, employ, mean · To what, where: plain meaning, comfortable condition, hospital bulletin, expression

This is exam question 1 of lesson 5 «Soft words for hard things: illness, disability and the body» 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	4 meaning	det
3	plain	plain	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 meaning	amod
4	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 expression	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 expression	det
7	expression	expression	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 meaning	nmod
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	7 expression	punct
9	in	in	ADP	_	12 condition	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 condition	det
11	comfortable	comfortable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 condition	amod
12	condition	condition	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obl
13	"	"	PUNCT	_	12 condition	punct
14	as	as	SCONJ	_	15 employed	mark
15	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Identify	advcl
16	in	in	ADP	_	19 bulletin	case
17	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	19 bulletin	det
18	hospital	hospital	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 bulletin	compound
19	bulletin	bulletin	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 employed	obl
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the plain meaning of the expression	a comfortable condition	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent meaning=Theme
2	employ	participle	you not said here		a hospital bulletin	vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	mean			the expression		nom meaning «communication 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

Ready for discharge

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ready	ready	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	for	for	ADP	_	3 discharge	case
3	discharge	discharge	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ready	nmod

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

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Seriously ill but stable

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Seriously	seriously	ADV	_	2 ill	advmod
2	ill	ill	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
3	but	but	CCONJ	_	4 stable	cc
4	stable	stable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 ill	conj

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

Option 3

Fully recovered and content

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fully	fully	ADV	_	2 recovered	advmod
2	recovered	recover	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 content	cc
4	content	content	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 recovered	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	recover	past		content				fully property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 4

Resting upon soft furnishings

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Resting	rest	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	upon	upon	ADP	_	4 furnishings	case
3	soft	soft	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 furnishings	amod
4	furnishings	furnishings	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Resting	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	rest	gerund				soft furnishings			vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon furnishings=Location

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/5-drink-mind-and-body/e1/