Exam question 3 · Sarcasm, hyperbole and understatement side by side

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning identical words, «Nice one», uttered first after a goal and subsequently after a dropped tray.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts · What happens: select, establish, concern, utter, drop · To what, where: response, identical words

This is exam question 3 of lesson 52 «Sarcasm, hyperbole and understatement side by side» 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 response	amod
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 facts	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 facts	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 facts	amod
8	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 facts	acl
10	identical	identical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 words	amod
11	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 concerning	obj
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 one	punct
13	«	«	PUNCT	_	15 one	punct
14	Nice	nice	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 one	amod
15	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 words	appos
16	»	»	PUNCT	_	15 one	punct
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 uttered	punct
18	uttered	utter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 Select	parataxis
19	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	18 uttered	advmod
20	after	after	ADP	_	22 goal	case
21	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	22 goal	det
22	goal	goal	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 uttered	obl
23	and	and	CCONJ	_	28 tray	cc
24	subsequently	subsequently	ADV	_	28 tray	advmod
25	after	after	ADP	_	28 tray	case
26	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	28 tray	det
27	dropped	drop	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	28 tray	amod
28	tray	tray	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 uttered	conj
29	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response			vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle					vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	identical words			vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus word=Experiencer
4	utter speech: other	past			after a goal	first property	vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent
5	drop	participle					vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme

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

Both utterances constitute hyperbole

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	2 utterances	det
2	utterances	utterance	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 constitute	nsubj
3	constitute	constitute	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	hyperbole	hyperbole	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 constitute	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	constitute	present	both utterances	hyperbole					vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme hyperbole=Pivot

Option 2

Both utterances constitute sincere praise

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	2 utterances	det
2	utterances	utterance	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 constitute	nsubj
3	constitute	constitute	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	sincere	sincere	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 praise	amod
5	praise	praise	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 constitute	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	constitute	present	both utterances	sincere praise					vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme praise=Pivot

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The meaning is determined by the circumstances, the second instance being sarcastic

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 meaning	det
2	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 determined	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 determined	aux:pass
4	determined	determine	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 circumstances	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 circumstances	det
7	circumstances	circumstance	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 determined	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 instance	punct
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 instance	det
10	second	second	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	11 instance	amod
11	instance	instance	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 circumstances	appos
12	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	13 sarcastic	cop
13	sarcastic	sarcastic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 instance	amod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	determine	present · passive	the circumstances	the meaning					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Topic
2	is	gerund						sarcastic property	tree rules

Option 4

The meaning is identical on both occasions, as the words are identical

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 meaning	det
2	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 identical	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 identical	cop
4	identical	identical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	on	on	ADP	_	7 occasions	case
6	both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	7 occasions	det
7	occasions	occasion	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 identical	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 identical	punct
9	as	as	SCONJ	_	13 identical	mark
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 words	det
11	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 identical	nsubj
12	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 identical	cop
13	identical	identical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 identical	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the meaning			both occasions		identical property	tree rules
2	is	present	the words					identical property	tree rules

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/52-sarcasm-hyperbole-and-understatement-side-by-side/e3/