Test 10 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: work, firing and the economy

"sod it, they gave me my marching orders, only been there a week" — what happened?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: they, marching orders, my · What happens: give, be, happen, order · To what, where: sod, me

This is test 10 · ★ of lesson 21 «Soft words for hard things: work, firing and the economy» of the euphemisms 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.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 sod	punct
2	sod	sod	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 gave	obl
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 sod	obj
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 sod	punct
5	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 gave	nsubj
6	gave	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	6 gave	iobj
8	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 orders	nmod:poss
9	marching	marching	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 orders	compound
10	orders	order	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 gave	obj
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 there	punct
12	only	only	ADV	_	14 there	advmod
13	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	14 there	cop
14	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	10 orders	acl:relcl
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 week	det
16	week	week	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 there	obl:unmarked
17	"	"	PUNCT	_	14 there	punct
18	—	-	PUNCT	_	20 happened	punct
19	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	20 happened	nsubj
20	happened	happen	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 gave	conj
21	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 gave	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	when	other	roles by
1	give in a quote	past	they	sod	me			vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient order=Theme
2	is in a quote	participle	my marching orders not said here			week	there property	tree rules
3	happen	past						vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
4	order in a quote		my					nom order «communication transitive»: poss=agent

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

The speaker was promoted

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 speaker	det
2	speaker	speaker	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 promoted	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 promoted	aux:pass
4	promoted	promote	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	promote	past · passive		the speaker					vn promote-102 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 2

The speaker got a list of tasks

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 speaker	det
2	speaker	speaker	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 got	nsubj
3	got	get	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 list	det
5	list	list	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 got	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 tasks	case
7	tasks	task	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 list	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	get	past	the speaker	a list of tasks					vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer list=Stimulus
2	list			tasks					nom list «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

The speaker joined a band

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 speaker	det
2	speaker	speaker	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 joined	nsubj
3	joined	join	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 band	det
5	band	band	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 joined	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	join	past	the speaker	a band					vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent band=Patient

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

The speaker was fired

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 speaker	det
2	speaker	speaker	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 fired	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 fired	aux:pass
4	fired	fire	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fire	past · passive		the speaker					vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

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/t10/