Exam question 1 · Not unhappy and not half: litotes

Identify the figure of speech employed in the utterance «I'm not unhappy with that», made by a parent upon reading an excellent report.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, I · What happens: identify, employ, not be, make, read, figure · To what, where: figure, speech, utterance, excellent report · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 1 of lesson 50 «Not unhappy and not half: litotes» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 figure	det
3	figure	figure	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 speech	case
5	speech	speech	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 figure	nmod
6	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 speech	acl
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 utterance	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 utterance	det
9	utterance	utterance	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 employed	obl
10	«	«	PUNCT	_	14 unhappy	punct
11	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	14 unhappy	nsubj
12	'm	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 unhappy	cop
13	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	14 unhappy	advmod
14	unhappy	unhappy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 utterance	parataxis
15	with	with	ADP	_	16 that	case
16	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	14 unhappy	obl
17	»	»	PUNCT	_	14 unhappy	punct
18	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 made	punct
19	made	make	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 figure	acl
20	by	by	ADP	_	22 parent	case
21	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	22 parent	det
22	parent	parent	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 made	obl
23	upon	upon	SCONJ	_	24 reading	mark
24	reading	read	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	19 made	advcl
25	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	27 report	det
26	excellent	excellent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	27 report	amod
27	report	report	NOUN	Number=Sing	24 reading	obj
28	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the figure of speech			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent figure=Theme
2	employ	participle		speech not said here	the utterance		vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	not is in a quote	present	I			with that; unhappy property	tree rules
4	make	participle		the figure of speech not said here		by a parent	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset
5	read	gerund		a excellent report			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent report=Topic
6	figure			speech			nom figure «communication transitive»: of=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.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

Sarcasm, an expression of the opposite meaning in mockery

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sarcasm	sarcasm	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 expression	punct
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 expression	det
4	expression	expression	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Sarcasm	appos
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 meaning	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 meaning	det
7	opposite	opposite	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 meaning	amod
8	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 expression	nmod
9	in	in	ADP	_	10 mockery	case
10	mockery	mockery	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 meaning	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2

A literal statement of indifference

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 statement	det
2	literal	literal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 statement	amod
3	statement	statement	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 indifference	case
5	indifference	indifference	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 statement	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	state			indifference					nom statement «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

Hyperbole, an exaggeration for effect

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Hyperbole	hyperbole	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 exaggeration	punct
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 exaggeration	det
4	exaggeration	exaggeration	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Hyperbole	conj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 effect	case
6	effect	effect	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 exaggeration	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Litotes, an affirmation expressed by the negation of its opposite

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Litotes	litote	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 affirmation	punct
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 affirmation	det
4	affirmation	affirmation	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Litotes	appos
5	expressed	express	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 affirmation	acl
6	by	by	ADP	_	8 negation	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 negation	det
8	negation	negation	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 expressed	obl
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 opposite	case
10	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 opposite	nmod:poss
11	opposite	opposite	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 negation	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	express	participle		a affirmation not said here				by the negation of negation's opposite	vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	negate			negation's opposite					nom negation «communication transitive»: of=patient

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/50-not-unhappy-and-not-half-litotes/e1/