Test 10 · Soft words for hard things: the toilet and bodily function…
Jess reckons "long in the tooth" means someone has big teeth. Is she right?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: Jess, someone · What happens: reckon, mean, have, be · To what, where: long, big teeth · Speech: someone speaks here
This is test 10 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. 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: Jess reckons "long in the tooth" means someone has big teeth.
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jess | Jess | PROPN | Number=Sing | 2 reckons | nsubj |
| 2 | reckons | reckon | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 9 means | nsubj |
| 3 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 4 long | punct |
| 4 | long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 2 reckons | obj |
| 5 | in | in | ADP | _ | 7 tooth | case |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 tooth | det |
| 7 | tooth | tooth | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 long | obl |
| 8 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 4 long | punct |
| 9 | means | mean | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 10 | someone | someone | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 11 has | nsubj |
| 11 | has | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 9 means | ccomp |
| 12 | big | big | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 13 teeth | amod |
| 13 | teeth | tooth | NOUN | Number=Plur | 11 has | obj |
| 14 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 9 means | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | reckon | present | Jess | long | vn consider-29.9-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent long=Attribute | ||||
| 2 | mean | present | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | ||||||
| 3 | have | present | someone | big teeth | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tooth=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.
Sentence 2: Is she right?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 right | cop |
| 2 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 right | nsubj |
| 3 | right | right | ADV | _ | root | root |
| 4 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 3 right | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | Jess | right property | tree rules |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer
No, it means old
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No | no | INTJ | Polarity=Neg | 4 means | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 No | punct |
| 3 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 means | nsubj |
| 4 | means | mean | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 means | xcomp |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | mean | present | it | old property | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent |
Option 2
No, hungry
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No | no | INTJ | Polarity=Neg | 3 hungry | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 No | punct |
| 3 | hungry | hungry | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3
Yes, it means big teeth
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yes | yes | INTJ | Polarity=Pos | 4 means | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Yes | punct |
| 3 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 means | nsubj |
| 4 | means | mean | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | big | big | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 teeth | amod |
| 6 | teeth | tooth | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 means | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | mean | present | it | big teeth | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tooth=Topic |
Option 4
Yes, it means a sharp bite
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yes | yes | INTJ | Polarity=Pos | 4 means | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Yes | punct |
| 3 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 means | nsubj |
| 4 | means | mean | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 7 bite | det |
| 6 | sharp | sharp | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 bite | amod |
| 7 | bite | bite | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 means | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | mean | present | it | a sharp bite | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bite=Topic |
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/t10/