Exam question 4 · Soft words for hard things: work, firing and the economy
Ascertain the plain meaning of the designation "sanitation engineer" when employed facetiously in respect of a municipal worker.
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, employ, mean, respect · To what, where: plain meaning, respect, designation, municipal worker
This is exam question 4 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 | Ascertain | ascertain | 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 Ascertain | obj |
| 5 | of | of | ADP | _ | 7 designation | case |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 designation | det |
| 7 | designation | designation | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 meaning | nmod |
| 8 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 10 engineer | punct |
| 9 | sanitation | sanitation | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 engineer | compound |
| 10 | engineer | engineer | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 designation | appos |
| 11 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 10 engineer | punct |
| 12 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 13 employed | advmod |
| 13 | employed | employ | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 10 engineer | acl |
| 14 | facetiously | facetiously | ADV | _ | 13 employed | advmod |
| 15 | in | in | ADP | _ | 16 respect | case |
| 16 | respect | respect | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 employed | obl |
| 17 | of | of | ADP | _ | 20 worker | case |
| 18 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 20 worker | det |
| 19 | municipal | municipal | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 20 worker | amod |
| 20 | worker | worker | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 respect | nmod |
| 21 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 1 Ascertain | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ascertain | imperative | you not said here | the plain meaning of the designation | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Topic | ||||
| 2 | employ | participle | respect of a municipal worker | facetiously property | vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 3 | mean | the designation | nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient | ||||||
| 4 | respect | a municipal worker | nom respect «cognition 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
A designer of civil structures
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 designer | det |
| 2 | designer | designer | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | of | of | ADP | _ | 5 structures | case |
| 4 | civil | civil | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 structures | amod |
| 5 | structures | structure | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 designer | nmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2 · ✓ the right answer
A collector of refuse
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 collector | det |
| 2 | collector | collector | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | of | of | ADP | _ | 4 refuse | case |
| 4 | refuse | refuse | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 collector | nmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3
An installer of electrical systems
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | An | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 installer | det |
| 2 | installer | installer | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | of | of | ADP | _ | 5 systems | case |
| 4 | electrical | electrical | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 systems | amod |
| 5 | systems | system | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 installer | nmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4
An inspector of hospitals
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | An | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 inspector | det |
| 2 | inspector | inspector | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | of | of | ADP | _ | 4 hospitals | case |
| 4 | hospitals | hospital | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 inspector | 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/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/e4/