Test 4 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: work, firing and the economy

"boss showed him the door after the fire alarm prank, serves him right" — what happened to him?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: boss · What happens: show, serve, happen · To what, where: door, him, boss

This is test 4 · ★ 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	_	3 showed	punct
2	boss	boss	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 showed	nsubj
3	showed	show	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 showed	iobj
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 door	det
6	door	door	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 showed	obj
7	after	after	ADP	_	11 prank	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 prank	det
9	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 alarm	compound
10	alarm	alarm	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 prank	compound
11	prank	prank	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 showed	obl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 serves	punct
13	serves	serve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 showed	conj
14	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 serves	obj
15	right	right	ADV	_	13 serves	advmod
16	"	"	PUNCT	_	13 serves	punct
17	—	-	PUNCT	_	19 happened	punct
18	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	19 happened	nsubj
19	happened	happen	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 serves	conj
20	to	to	ADP	_	21 him	case
21	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 happened	obl
22	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 showed	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	when	other	roles by
1	show in a quote	past	boss	the door	him = he	after the alarm prank		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient door=Topic
2	serve in a quote	present	boss not said here	boss			right property	vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Attribute
3	happen	past			boss			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

He was given a new office

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 given	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 given	aux:pass
3	given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 office	det
5	new	new	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 office	amod
6	office	office	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 given	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	give	past · passive		He					vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient office=Theme

Option 2

He was led safely outside

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 led	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 led	aux:pass
3	led	lead	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	safely	safely	ADV	_	3 led	advmod
5	outside	outside	ADV	_	3 led	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lead	past · passive		He				outside, safely property	vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

He was fired

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 fired	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 fired	aux:pass
3	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		He					vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 4

He was moved to the front desk

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 moved	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 moved	aux:pass
3	moved	move	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	7 desk	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 desk	det
6	front	front	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 desk	amod
7	desk	desk	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 moved	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	move	past · passive		He		the front desk			vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: subject=Theme to desk=Trajectory

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/t4/