Exam question 1 · Idioms taken literally

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises an idiom?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: idiom

This is exam question 1 of lesson 25 «Idioms taken literally» of the language 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 idiom	det
10	idiom	idiom	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		a idiom				of the following statements; 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

A grammatical error tolerated in informal speech

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 error	det
2	grammatical	grammatical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 error	amod
3	error	error	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	tolerated	tolerate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 error	acl
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 speech	case
6	informal	informal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 speech	amod
7	speech	speech	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 tolerated	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tolerate	participle		a grammatical error not said here		informal speech			vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

A word whose spelling is identical when reversed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 word	det
2	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 identical	nsubj
3	whose	whose	PRON	Poss=Yes PronType=Rel	4 spelling	nmod:poss
4	spelling	spelling	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 identical	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 identical	cop
6	identical	identical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
7	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	8 reversed	advmod
8	reversed	reverse	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 identical	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	a word					identical property	tree rules
2	reverse	participle	a word not said here						vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

A fixed expression whose meaning is not derivable from the literal meanings of its constituent words

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 expression	det
2	fixed	fix	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 expression	amod
3	expression	expression	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 derivable	nsubj
4	whose	whose	PRON	Poss=Yes PronType=Rel	5 meaning	nmod:poss
5	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 expression	nmod
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 derivable	cop
7	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	8 derivable	advmod
8	derivable	derivable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
9	from	from	ADP	_	12 meanings	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 meanings	det
11	literal	literal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 meanings	amod
12	meanings	meaning	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 derivable	obl
13	of	of	ADP	_	16 words	case
14	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 words	nmod:poss
15	constituent	constituent	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 words	compound
16	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 meanings	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	fix	participle					vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient
2	not is	present	a fixed expression a fixed expression a fixed expression's meaning's meaning		the literal meanings of expression's constituent words	derivable property	tree rules
3	mean		a fixed expression a fixed expression meaning's meaning				nom meaning «communication transitive»: poss=agent
4	mean			expression's constituent words			nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient
5	word		expression				nom word «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4

A word borrowed from another language without alteration

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 word	det
2	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	borrowed	borrow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 word	acl
4	from	from	ADP	_	6 language	case
5	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	6 language	det
6	language	language	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 borrowed	obl
7	without	without	ADP	_	8 alteration	case
8	alteration	alteration	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 borrowed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	borrow	participle		a word not said here		another language		without alteration	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent from language=Source

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/language/25-idioms-taken-literally/e1/