Exam question 1 · Soft words for hard things: work, firing and the economy

Identify the principal meaning of the expression "headcount reduction" as employed in corporate announcements.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, employ, mean · To what, where: principal meaning, corporate announcements, expression

This is exam question 1 of lesson 21 «Soft words for hard things: 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 meaning	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 meaning	amod
4	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 expression	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 expression	det
7	expression	expression	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 meaning	nmod
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 reduction	punct
9	headcount	headcount	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 reduction	compound
10	reduction	reduction	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 expression	appos
11	"	"	PUNCT	_	10 reduction	punct
12	as	as	SCONJ	_	13 employed	mark
13	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Identify	advcl
14	in	in	ADP	_	16 announcements	case
15	corporate	corporate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 announcements	amod
16	announcements	announcement	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 employed	obl
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal meaning of the expression		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent meaning=Theme
2	employ	participle	you not said here		corporate announcements	vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	mean			the expression		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 abbreviation of staff meetings

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 abbreviation	det
2	abbreviation	abbreviation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 meetings	case
4	staff	staff	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 meetings	compound
5	meetings	meeting	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 abbreviation	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	abbreviate			staff meetings					nom abbreviation «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

The more accurate enumeration of personnel

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 enumeration	det
2	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	3 accurate	advmod
3	accurate	accurate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 enumeration	amod
4	enumeration	enumeration	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 personnel	case
6	personnel	personnel	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 enumeration	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	enumerate			personnel					nom enumeration «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

The diminution of noise within the premises

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 diminution	det
2	diminution	diminution	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 noise	case
4	noise	noise	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 diminution	nmod
5	within	within	ADP	_	7 premises	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 premises	det
7	premises	premise	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 diminution	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	diminish		noise					within the premises	nom diminution «process intransitive»: of=agent within=obl

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The dismissal of a number of employees

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 dismissal	det
2	dismissal	dismissal	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 number	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 number	det
5	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 dismissal	nmod
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 employees	case
7	employees	employee	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 number	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dismiss			a number of employees					nom dismissal «act transitive»: of=patient

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.

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