Exam question 1 · Soft words for hard things: business and advertising and p…

Identify the principal meaning of the expression "economical with the truth" as applied to a public official's statement.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, public official · What happens: identify, apply, mean, state · To what, where: principal meaning, expression

This is exam question 1 of lesson 23 «Soft words for hard things: business and advertising and politics and government spin» 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	_	9 economical	punct
9	economical	economical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 expression	amod
10	with	with	ADP	_	12 truth	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 truth	det
12	truth	truth	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 economical	obl
13	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 economical	punct
14	as	as	SCONJ	_	15 applied	mark
15	applied	apply	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Identify	advcl
16	to	to	ADP	_	21 statement	case
17	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	19 official	det
18	public	public	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 official	amod
19	official	official	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 statement	nmod:poss
20	's	's	PART	_	19 official	case
21	statement	statement	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 applied	obl
22	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	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	apply	participle	you not said here		to a public official's statement	vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	mean			the expression		nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient
4	state		a public official			nom statement «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 · ← Mova's choice

The statement was brief but entirely accurate

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 statement	det
2	statement	statement	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 brief	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 brief	cop
4	brief	brief	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	but	but	CCONJ	_	7 accurate	cc
6	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	7 accurate	advmod
7	accurate	accurate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 brief	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the statement					brief property	tree rules
2	be		the statement not said here					entirely property	tree rules

Option 2

The statement was delivered without remuneration

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 statement	det
2	statement	statement	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 delivered	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 delivered	aux:pass
4	delivered	deliver	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	without	without	ADP	_	6 remuneration	case
6	remuneration	remuneration	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 delivered	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	deliver	past · passive		the statement				without remuneration	vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The statement was untruthful or omitted material facts

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 statement	det
2	statement	statement	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 untruthful	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 untruthful	cop
4	untruthful	untruthful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	or	or	CCONJ	_	6 omitted	cc
6	omitted	omit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 untruthful	conj
7	material	material	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 facts	compound
8	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 omitted	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the statement					untruthful property	tree rules
2	omit	participle	the statement not said here	material facts					vn exclude-107.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fact=Theme

Option 4

The statement reduced public expenditure

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 statement	det
2	statement	statement	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 reduced	nsubj
3	reduced	reduce	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	public	public	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 expenditure	amod
5	expenditure	expenditure	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 reduced	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reduce	past	the statement	public expenditure					vn limit-76 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer expenditure=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/23-fees-bugs-and-spin/e1/