---
title: Theo's mate goes "just spit it out, stop beatin' round the bush, bru… — Idioms taken literally · tree and pragmatics
description: Theo's mate goes "just spit it out, stop beatin' round the bush, bruv." What does he want? Test 7 · ★★ of lesson 25 «Idioms taken literally» of the language course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice was right.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/25-idioms-taken-literally/t7/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [questions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/) / [Language](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/) / [Idioms taken literally](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/25-idioms-taken-literally/) / t7

# Test 7 · ★★ · Idioms taken literally

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Theo's mate goes "just spit it out, stop beatin' round the bush, bruv." What does he want?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** mate, Theo · **What happens:** go, spit out, stop, want · **To what, where:** mate, beatin

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 7 · ★★ of lesson 25 «Idioms taken literally» of the language 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/language/25-idioms-taken-literally/#t7).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* Theo's mate goes "just spit it out, stop beatin' round the bush, bruv."

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:25-idioms-taken-literally:t7:1
# text = Theo's mate goes "just spit it out, stop beatin' round the bush, bruv."
1	Theo	Theo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	's	's	PART	POS	_	1	case	_	_
3	mate	mate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	goes	go	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	just	just	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	spit	spit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	out	out	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	stop	stop	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
12	beatin	beatin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
14	round	round	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	bush	bush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	bruv	bruv	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | present | Theo's mate |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **spit out** *in a quote* | infinitive | Theo's mate *not said here* | mate |  |  |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 3 | **stop** *in a quote* | infinitive | Theo's mate *not said here* | beatin |  |  |  | round the bush and bruv | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality beatin=Eventuality |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 2:* What does he want?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:25-idioms-taken-literally:t7:2
# text = What does he want?
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	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	want	want	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **want** | present · do-support | Theo |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot what=Theme |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Say it directly

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:25-idioms-taken-literally:t7:o1:1
# text = Say it directly
1	Say	say	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	_
3	directly	directly	ADV	RB	_	1	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | imperative | you *not said here* | it |  |  |  | directly *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent it=Topic |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Spit on the ground

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:25-idioms-taken-literally:t7:o2:1
# text = Spit on the ground
1	Spit	spit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
2	on	on	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nmod	_	_
```

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

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Go and play in the garden

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:25-idioms-taken-literally:t7:o3:1
# text = Go and play in the garden
1	Go	go	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
3	play	play	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	garden	garden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | imperative | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **play** | infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  | the garden |  |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Run round the bushes

```conllu
# sent_id = question:language:25-idioms-taken-literally:t7:o4:1
# text = Run round the bushes
1	Run	run	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	round	round	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	bushes	bush	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **run** | imperative | you *not said here* |  |  | the bushes |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme round bush=Trajectory |

<!-- div src -->

**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 -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Idioms taken literally, test 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/25-idioms-taken-literally/t6/)
- next →: [Idioms taken literally, test 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/25-idioms-taken-literally/t8/)
- ↑ back to [Idioms taken literally](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/language/25-idioms-taken-literally/)