Exam question 4 · Soft words for hard things: the toilet and bodily functions

Given that a pharmacy catalogue lists "protective underwear", determine which of the following most accurately characterises the product.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: pharmacy catalogue, you · What happens: give, list, determine, follow, characteris · To what, where: protective underwear, product

This is exam question 4 of lesson 7 «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	Given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 lists	mark
2	that	that	SCONJ	_	6 lists	mark
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 catalogue	det
4	pharmacy	pharmacy	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 catalogue	compound
5	catalogue	catalogue	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 lists	nsubj
6	lists	list	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 determine	advcl
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 underwear	punct
8	protective	protective	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 underwear	amod
9	underwear	underwear	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 lists	obj
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 underwear	punct
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 determine	punct
12	determine	determine	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
13	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	19 characterises	nsubj
14	of	of	SCONJ	_	19 characterises	mark
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 characterises	det
16	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	19 characterises	csubj
17	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	18 accurately	advmod
18	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	19 characterises	advmod
19	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 determine	ccomp
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 product	det
21	product	product	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 characterises	obj
22	.	.	PUNCT	_	12 determine	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	give	participle				vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
2	list	present	a pharmacy catalogue	protective underwear		tree rules
3	determine	imperative	you not said here			vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
4	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
5	characteris	present		the product	accurately property	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

Underwear treated against insects

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Underwear	underwear	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	treated	treat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Underwear	acl
3	against	against	ADP	_	4 insects	case
4	insects	insect	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 treated	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	treat	participle		Underwear not said here				against insects	vn equip-13.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent

Option 2

Garments offering protection against cold

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Garments	garment	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
2	offering	offer	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	1 Garments	acl
3	protection	protection	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 offering	obj
4	against	against	ADP	_	5 cold	case
5	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 offering	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	offer	gerund	Garments not said here	protection				against cold	vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent protection=Theme

Option 3

Clothing worn for contact sports

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Clothing	clothe	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 worn	aux:pass
2	worn	wear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
3	for	for	ADP	_	5 sports	case
4	contact	contact	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 sports	compound
5	sports	sport	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 worn	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wear	gerund · passive						for contact sports	vn wipe_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V PP-Conative»

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Adult nappies for incontinence

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Adult	adult	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 nappies	amod
2	nappies	nappy	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	for	for	ADP	_	4 incontinence	case
4	incontinence	incontinence	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 nappies	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/7-wind-sick-and-runs/e4/