Exam question 4 · Soft words for hard things: money and poverty and work, fi…

Whereas an undertaking states that it is "downsizing", determine the consequence most likely to ensue for its personnel.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: undertaking, you · What happens: state, be, determine, ensue · To what, where: downsizing, consequence · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 4 of lesson 20 «Soft words for hard things: money and poverty and work, firing and the economy» 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	Whereas	whereas	SCONJ	_	4 states	mark
2	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 undertaking	det
3	undertaking	undertaking	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 states	nsubj
4	states	state	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 determine	advcl
5	that	that	SCONJ	_	9 downsizing	mark
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 downsizing	nsubj
7	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 downsizing	cop
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 downsizing	punct
9	downsizing	downsizing	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 states	ccomp
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 downsizing	punct
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 determine	punct
12	determine	determine	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 consequence	det
14	consequence	consequence	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 determine	obj
15	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	16 likely	advmod
16	likely	likely	ADV	_	18 ensue	advmod
17	to	to	PART	_	18 ensue	mark
18	ensue	ensue	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	14 consequence	acl:relcl
19	for	for	ADP	_	21 personnel	case
20	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	21 personnel	nmod:poss
21	personnel	personnel	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 ensue	obl
22	.	.	PUNCT	_	12 determine	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	state speech: other	present	a undertaking			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	is a in a quote	present	undertaking	downsizing		tree rules
3	determine	imperative	you not said here	the consequence		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent consequence=Topic
4	ensue	to-infinitive	you not said here	the consequence not said here	for undertaking's personnel; likely property	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP 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

The relocation of all staff to larger premises

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 relocation	det
2	relocation	relocation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 staff	case
4	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	5 staff	det
5	staff	staff	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 relocation	nmod
6	to	to	ADP	_	8 premises	case
7	larger	large	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	8 premises	amod
8	premises	premise	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 relocation	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	relocate			all staff				to larger premises	nom relocation «act transitive»: of=patient to=obl

Option 2

An increase in remuneration

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 increase	det
2	increase	increase	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	4 remuneration	case
4	remuneration	remuneration	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 increase	nmod

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

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

A reduction in the number of jobs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 reduction	det
2	reduction	reduction	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 number	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 number	det
5	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reduction	nmod
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 jobs	case
7	jobs	job	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 number	nmod

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

Option 4

A reduction in the size of furniture

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 reduction	det
2	reduction	reduction	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 size	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 size	det
5	size	size	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reduction	nmod
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 furniture	case
7	furniture	furniture	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 size	nmod

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

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/20-debt-and-jobs/e4/