Exam question 4 · Soft words for hard things: the toilet and bodily functions
Whereas a hostess informs her guests that "the powder room is adjacent to the hall", determine what the guests may find there.
Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: hostess, powder room, you, guests · What happens: inform, be, determine, find · To what, where: guests · Speech: someone speaks here
This is exam question 4 of lesson 6 «Soft words for hard things: the toilet and bodily functions» 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 | Whereas | whereas | SCONJ | _ | 4 informs | mark |
| 2 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 hostess | det |
| 3 | hostess | hostess | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 informs | nsubj |
| 4 | informs | inform | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 19 determine | advcl |
| 5 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 6 guests | nmod:poss |
| 6 | guests | guest | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 informs | obj |
| 7 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 13 adjacent | mark |
| 8 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 13 adjacent | punct |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 room | det |
| 10 | powder | powder | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 room | compound |
| 11 | room | room | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 adjacent | nsubj |
| 12 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 13 adjacent | cop |
| 13 | adjacent | adjacent | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 informs | advcl |
| 14 | to | to | ADP | _ | 16 hall | case |
| 15 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 16 hall | det |
| 16 | hall | hall | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 adjacent | obl |
| 17 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 16 hall | punct |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 determine | punct |
| 19 | determine | determine | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 20 | what | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 24 find | obj |
| 21 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 guests | det |
| 22 | guests | guest | NOUN | Number=Plur | 24 find | nsubj |
| 23 | may | may | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 24 find | aux |
| 24 | find | find | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 19 determine | ccomp |
| 25 | there | there | ADV | PronType=Dem | 24 find | advmod |
| 26 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 19 determine | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | inform speech: other | present | a hostess | hostess's guests | vn tell-37.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent guest=Recipient | ||||
| 2 | is in a quote | present | the powder room | to the hall; adjacent property | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | determine | imperative | you not said here | vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 4 | find | may | the guests | there | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=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.
The options
Option 1
A cloakroom for outer garments
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 cloakroom | det |
| 2 | cloakroom | cloakroom | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | for | for | ADP | _ | 5 garments | case |
| 4 | outer | outer | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 garments | amod |
| 5 | garments | garment | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 cloakroom | nmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2
A room reserved for cosmetics
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 room | det |
| 2 | room | room | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | reserved | reserve | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 2 room | acl |
| 4 | for | for | ADP | _ | 5 cosmetics | case |
| 5 | cosmetics | cosmetic | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 reserved | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | reserve | participle | a room not said here | for cosmetics | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent for cosmetic=Beneficiary |
Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer
A small toilet for visitors
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 toilet | det |
| 2 | small | small | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 toilet | amod |
| 3 | toilet | toilet | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 4 | for | for | ADP | _ | 5 visitors | case |
| 5 | visitors | visitor | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 toilet | nmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4
A storeroom for household powders
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 storeroom | det |
| 2 | storeroom | storeroom | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | for | for | ADP | _ | 5 powders | case |
| 4 | household | household | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 powders | compound |
| 5 | powders | powder | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 storeroom | nmod |
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/6-toilet-words/e4/