---
title: Old aunt, rough: "Thirty and still on the shelf, poor thing." What d… — Soft words for hard things: relations… · tree and pragmatics
description: Old aunt, rough: "Thirty and still on the shelf, poor thing." What does she mean (unkindly)? Test 10 · ★ of lesson 13 «Soft words for hard things: relations and family» of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova
---

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# Test 10 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: relations and family

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Old aunt, rough: "Thirty and still on the shelf, poor thing." What does she mean (unkindly)?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** she · **What happens:** mean

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 10 · ★ of lesson 13 «Soft words for hard things: relations and family» 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](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/euphemisms/13-relations-and-family/#t10).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* Old aunt, rough: "Thirty and still on the shelf, poor thing."

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:13-relations-and-family:t10:1
# text = Old aunt, rough: "Thirty and still on the shelf, poor thing."
1	Old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	aunt	aunt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	rough	rough	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	7	punct	_	_
6	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	Thirty	thirty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	appos	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	still	still	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	shelf	shelf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 2:* What does she mean (unkindly)?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:13-relations-and-family:t10:2
# text = What does she mean (unkindly)?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	obj	_	_
2	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	mean	mean	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	unkindly	unkindly	ADV	RB	_	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mean** | present · do-support | she |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She thinks the woman is tidy

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:13-relations-and-family:t10:o1:1
# text = She thinks the woman is tidy
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	thinks	think	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	tidy	tidy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	ccomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | present | She |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | present | the woman |  |  |  |  | tidy *property* | tree rules |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The woman works in a library

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:13-relations-and-family:t10:o2:1
# text = The woman works in a library
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	works	work	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	library	library	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **work** | present | the woman |  |  |  |  | in a library | vn employment-95.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent in library=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The woman cannot reach the shelf

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:13-relations-and-family:t10:o3:1
# text = The woman cannot reach the shelf
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	reach	reach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	shelf	shelf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **reach** | can | the woman | the shelf |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent shelf=Theme |

### Option 4 · ✓ the right answer {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She thinks the woman is too old to marry

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:13-relations-and-family:t10:o4:1
# text = She thinks the woman is too old to marry
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	thinks	think	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	too	too	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	ccomp	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	marry	marry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | present | She |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | present | the woman |  |  |  |  | old *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **marry** | to-infinitive | the woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |

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**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.

<!-- /div -->

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