Exam question 2 · Soft words for hard things: the toilet and bodily function…
It is stated that a gentleman is "long in the tooth". Ascertain the characteristic thereby attributed to him.
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: gentleman, you, characteristic · What happens: state, be, ascertain, attribute · To what, where: It, tooth, characteristic, gentleman · Speech: someone speaks here
This is exam question 2 of lesson 8 «Soft words for hard things: the toilet and bodily functions and age and looks» 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
Sentence 1: It is stated that a gentleman is "long in the tooth".
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | It | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 stated | nsubj:pass |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 stated | aux:pass |
| 3 | stated | state | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 4 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 9 long | mark |
| 5 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 6 gentleman | det |
| 6 | gentleman | gentleman | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 long | nsubj |
| 7 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 9 long | cop |
| 8 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 9 long | punct |
| 9 | long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 stated | advcl |
| 10 | in | in | ADP | _ | 12 tooth | case |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 tooth | det |
| 12 | tooth | tooth | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 long | obl |
| 13 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 12 tooth | punct |
| 14 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 stated | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | state speech: other | present · passive | It | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: subject=Topic | |||||
| 2 | is in a quote | present | a gentleman | the tooth | long 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.
Sentence 2: Ascertain the characteristic thereby attributed to him.
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 characteristic | det |
| 3 | characteristic | characteristic | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Ascertain | obj |
| 4 | thereby | thereby | ADV | _ | 5 attributed | advmod |
| 5 | attributed | attribute | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 characteristic | acl:relcl |
| 6 | to | to | ADP | _ | 7 him | case |
| 7 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 attributed | obl |
| 8 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 1 Ascertain | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ascertain | imperative | you not said here | the characteristic | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent characteristic=Topic | ||||
| 2 | attribute | past | the characteristic not said here | gentleman | thereby property | tree rules |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer
Advanced age
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Advanced | advanced | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 2 age | amod |
| 2 | age | age | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2
Large teeth
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Large | large | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 2 teeth | amod |
| 2 | teeth | tooth | NOUN | Number=Plur | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3
An aggressive temperament
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | An | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 temperament | det |
| 2 | aggressive | aggressive | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 temperament | amod |
| 3 | temperament | temperament | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4
Dental ill health
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dental | dental | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 health | amod |
| 2 | ill | ill | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 health | amod |
| 3 | health | health | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
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/8-toilets-and-getting-older/e2/