Exam question 4 · Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin

Ascertain the plain meaning of "internally displaced person" as employed in international reports.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, displace, employ, mean · To what, where: plain meaning, displaced person, international reports

This is exam question 4 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	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	_	9 person	case
6	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 person	punct
7	internally	internally	ADV	_	8 displaced	advmod
8	displaced	displace	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 person	amod
9	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 meaning	nmod
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 person	punct
11	as	as	SCONJ	_	12 employed	mark
12	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 person	acl
13	in	in	ADP	_	15 reports	case
14	international	international	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 reports	amod
15	reports	report	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 employed	obl
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the plain meaning of displaced person			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Topic
2	displace in a quote	participle				internally property	tree rules
3	employ	participle		displaced person not said here	international reports		vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
4	mean			displaced person			nom meaning «communication 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 · ✓ the right answer

A person compelled to leave home who remains within his own country

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 person	det
2	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 remains	nsubj
3	compelled	compel	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 person	acl
4	to	to	PART	_	5 leave	mark
5	leave	leave	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 compelled	xcomp
6	home	home	ADV	_	5 leave	advmod
7	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 remains	nsubj
8	remains	remain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	within	within	ADP	_	12 country	case
10	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 country	nmod:poss
11	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 country	amod
12	country	country	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 remains	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	compel	participle		a person not said here		vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Result
2	leave	to-infinitive			home property	vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	remain	present	a person		within person's own country	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

A person confined indoors by illness

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 person	det
2	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	confined	confine	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 person	acl
4	indoors	indoors	ADV	_	3 confined	advmod
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 illness	case
6	illness	illness	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 confined	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	confine	participle		a person not said here				by illness; indoors property	vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 3

A person employed within a government building

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 person	det
2	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 person	acl
4	within	within	ADP	_	7 building	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 building	det
6	government	government	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 building	compound
7	building	building	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 employed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	employ	participle		a person not said here				within a government building	vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 4

A person who has emigrated voluntarily to a foreign land

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 person	det
2	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 emigrated	nsubj
4	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 emigrated	aux
5	emigrated	emigrate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	2 person	acl:relcl
6	voluntarily	voluntarily	ADV	_	5 emigrated	advmod
7	to	to	ADP	_	10 land	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 land	det
9	foreign	foreign	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 land	amod
10	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 emigrated	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	emigrate	present · perfect	a person			a foreign land		voluntarily property	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to land=Initial_Location

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/e4/