Exam question 3 · Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises "entitlement reform" as the term is employed in American politics?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · What happens: follow, characteris, employ · To what, where: entitlement reform, term, American politics

This is exam question 3 of lesson 24 «Soft words for hard things: 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	11 reform	punct
10	entitlement	entitlement	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 reform	compound
11	reform	reform	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
12	"	"	PUNCT	_	11 reform	punct
13	as	as	SCONJ	_	17 employed	mark
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 term	det
15	term	term	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 employed	nsubj:pass
16	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	17 employed	aux:pass
17	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 characterises	advcl
18	in	in	ADP	_	20 politics	case
19	American	American	ADJ	Degree=Pos	20 politics	amod
20	politics	politics	NOUN	Number=Ptan	17 employed	obl
21	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present	entitlement reform		of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	employ	present · passive	the term	American politics		vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: subject=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 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

The reduction of pensions and welfare provision

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 reduction	det
2	reduction	reduction	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 pensions	case
4	pensions	pension	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 reduction	nmod
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 provision	cc
6	welfare	welfare	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 provision	compound
7	provision	provision	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reduction	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reduce			pensions					nom reduction «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

The abolition of all taxation

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 abolition	det
2	abolition	abolition	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 taxation	case
4	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	5 taxation	det
5	taxation	taxation	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 abolition	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	abolish			all taxation					nom abolition «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

The augmentation of pensions and welfare provision

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 augmentation	det
2	augmentation	augmentation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 pensions	case
4	pensions	pension	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 augmentation	nmod
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 provision	cc
6	welfare	welfare	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 provision	compound
7	provision	provision	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 pensions	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	augment			pensions and welfare provision					nom augmentation «event transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

The renaming of official titles

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 renaming	det
2	renaming	renaming	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 titles	case
4	official	official	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 titles	amod
5	titles	title	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 renaming	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/24-government-spin/e3/