Exam question 1 · Soft words for hard things: death and dying

Identify the plain meaning of the term "collateral damage" as it appears in an official military communiqué.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, it · What happens: identify, appear, mean · To what, where: plain meaning, official military communiqué, term

This is exam question 1 of lesson 2 «Soft words for hard things: death and dying» of the euphemisms 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	4 meaning	det
3	plain	plain	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 meaning	amod
4	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 term	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 term	det
7	term	term	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 meaning	nmod
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 damage	punct
9	collateral	collateral	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 damage	compound
10	damage	damage	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 term	appos
11	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 damage	punct
12	as	as	SCONJ	_	14 appears	mark
13	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 appears	nsubj
14	appears	appear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Identify	advcl
15	in	in	ADP	_	19 communiqué	case
16	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	19 communiqué	det
17	official	official	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 communiqué	amod
18	military	military	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 communiqué	amod
19	communiqué	communiqué	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 appears	obl
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the plain meaning of the term		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent meaning=Theme
2	appear	present	it		a official military communiqué	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in communiqué=Location
3	mean			the term		nom meaning «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 · ✓ the right answer

The unintended killing of civilians or destruction of property

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 killing	det
2	unintended	unintended	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 killing	amod
3	killing	killing	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 civilians	case
5	civilians	civilian	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 killing	nmod
6	or	or	CCONJ	_	7 destruction	cc
7	destruction	destruction	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 civilians	conj
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 property	case
9	property	property	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 destruction	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	kill			civilians or destruction of property					nom killing «event transitive»: of=patient
2	destroy			property					nom destruction «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

Financial losses incurred by the armed forces

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Financial	financial	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 losses	amod
2	losses	loss	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	incurred	incur	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 losses	acl
4	by	by	ADP	_	7 forces	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 forces	det
6	armed	armed	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 forces	amod
7	forces	force	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 incurred	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	incur	participle		Financial losses not said here				by the armed forces	tree rules

Option 3

Damage sustained by military vehicles in transit

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Damage	damage	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	sustained	sustain	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Damage	acl
3	by	by	ADP	_	5 vehicles	case
4	military	military	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 vehicles	amod
5	vehicles	vehicle	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 sustained	obl
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 transit	case
7	transit	transit	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 sustained	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sustain	participle		Damage not said here		transit		by military vehicles	vn sustain-55.6 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent

Option 4

Injuries sustained by soldiers during training

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Injuries	injury	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
2	sustained	sustain	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Injuries	acl
3	by	by	ADP	_	4 soldiers	case
4	soldiers	soldier	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 sustained	obl
5	during	during	ADP	_	6 training	case
6	training	training	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 sustained	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sustain	participle		Injuries not said here			during training	by soldiers	vn sustain-55.6 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent

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/euphemisms/2-death-official-and-slang/e1/