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

Whereas a notice prohibits persons from "relieving themselves" in a public place, determine the conduct thereby prohibited.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: notice, persons, you, conduct · What happens: prohibit, relieve, determine · To what, where: persons, public place, conduct

This is exam question 4 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Whereas	whereas	SCONJ	_	4 prohibits	mark
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 notice	det
3	notice	notice	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 prohibits	nsubj
4	prohibits	prohibit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 determine	advcl
5	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 prohibits	obj
6	from	from	SCONJ	_	8 relieving	mark
7	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 relieving	punct
8	relieving	relieve	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 persons	acl
9	themselves	themselves	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	8 relieving	obj
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 relieving	punct
11	in	in	ADP	_	14 place	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 place	det
13	public	public	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 place	amod
14	place	place	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 relieving	obl
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 determine	punct
16	determine	determine	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 conduct	det
18	conduct	conduct	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 determine	obj
19	thereby	thereby	ADV	_	20 prohibited	advmod
20	prohibited	prohibit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	18 conduct	acl:relcl
21	.	.	PUNCT	_	16 determine	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	prohibit	present	a notice	persons			vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer person=Theme
2	relieve in a quote	gerund	persons not said here	persons = person	a public place		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus themselves=Experiencer
3	determine	imperative	you not said here	the conduct			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent conduct=Topic
4	prohibit	past	the conduct not said here			thereby property	vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Causer

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

Removing items of clothing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Removing	remove	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 items	amod
2	items	item	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 clothing	case
4	clothing	clothing	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 items	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	remove	gerund							vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 2

Resting upon public benches

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 benches	case
3	public	public	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 benches	amod
4	benches	bench	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Resting	obl

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

Option 3

Consuming food and drink

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Consuming	consume	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Consuming	obj
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 drink	cc
4	drink	drink	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 food	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	consume	gerund		food and drink					vn consume-66 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent food=Asset

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Urinating or defecating

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Urinating	urinate	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	or	or	CCONJ	_	3 defecating	cc
3	defecating	defecate	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 Urinating	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	urinate	gerund							vn breathe-40.1.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	defecate	gerund							vn breathe-40.1.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/e4/