Exam question 4 · Soft words for hard things: illness, disability and the body

Ascertain the meaning of the expression "self-medicating" when applied to a person's consumption of alcohol.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, person · What happens: ascertain, apply, mean, consume · To what, where: meaning, expression, alcohol

This is exam question 4 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 meaning	det
3	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 expression	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 expression	det
6	expression	expression	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 meaning	nmod
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 medicating	punct
8	self	self	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 medicating	compound
9	-	-	PUNCT	_	10 medicating	punct
10	medicating	medicating	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 expression	appos
11	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 medicating	punct
12	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	13 applied	advmod
13	applied	apply	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 medicating	acl
14	to	to	ADP	_	18 consumption	case
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 person	det
16	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 consumption	nmod:poss
17	's	's	PART	_	16 person	case
18	consumption	consumption	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 applied	obl
19	of	of	ADP	_	20 alcohol	case
20	alcohol	alcohol	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 consumption	nmod
21	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the meaning of the expression		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Topic
2	apply	participle			to a person's consumption of alcohol	vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	mean			the expression		nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient
4	consume		a person	alcohol		nom consumption «act transitive»: poss=agent 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

Taking prescribed medicine correctly and at the stated times

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Taking	take	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	prescribed	prescribe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 medicine	amod
3	medicine	medicine	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Taking	obj
4	correctly	correctly	ADV	_	1 Taking	advmod
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 times	cc
6	at	at	ADP	_	9 times	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 times	det
8	stated	state	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 times	amod
9	times	time	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Taking	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	take	gerund	prescribed medicine	time	correctly property	vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent medicine=Theme
2	prescribe	participle				tree rules
3	state speech: other	participle				vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Drinking alcohol in order to cope with difficulties

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Drinking	drink	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	alcohol	alcohol	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Drinking	obj
3	in	in	ADP	_	4 order	case
4	order	order	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Drinking	obl
5	to	to	PART	_	6 cope	mark
6	cope	cope	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Drinking	advcl
7	with	with	ADP	_	8 difficulties	case
8	difficulties	difficulty	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 cope	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drink	gerund		alcohol		order			vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent alcohol=Patient
2	cope	to-infinitive						with difficulties	vn cope-83-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent with difficulty=Theme

Option 3

Manufacturing one's own medicine

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Manufacturing	manufacture	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	one	one	PRON	Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 medicine	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 one	case
4	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 medicine	amod
5	medicine	medicine	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Manufacturing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	manufacture	gerund		one's own medicine					vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent medicine=Result
2	medicine		one						nom medicine «cognition transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4

Treating others without qualification

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Treating	treat	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	others	other	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Treating	obj
3	without	without	ADP	_	4 qualification	case
4	qualification	qualification	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Treating	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	treat	gerund		others				without qualification	vn equip-13.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent other=Recipient

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/e4/