Test 11 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin
A politician promises "investment in our roads". What does it mean in plain words?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: politician, investment · What happens: promise, mean · To what, where: investment, roads
This is test 11 · ★ of lesson 24 «Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin» 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
Sentence 1: A politician promises "investment in our roads".
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 politician | det |
| 2 | politician | politician | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 promises | nsubj |
| 3 | promises | promise | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 investment | punct |
| 5 | investment | investment | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 promises | obj |
| 6 | in | in | ADP | _ | 8 roads | case |
| 7 | our | our | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 8 roads | nmod:poss |
| 8 | roads | road | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 investment | nmod |
| 9 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 investment | punct |
| 10 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 promises | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | promise speech: promise | present | a politician | investment | our roads | vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent investment=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.
Sentence 2: What does it mean in plain words?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 4 mean | obj |
| 2 | does | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 mean | aux |
| 3 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 mean | nsubj |
| 4 | mean | mean | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 5 | in | in | ADP | _ | 7 words | case |
| 6 | plain | plain | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 words | amod |
| 7 | words | word | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 mean | obl |
| 8 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 4 mean | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | mean | present · do-support | investment | in plain words | vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Pivot what=Theme in word=Attribute |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer
Government spending on roads
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Government | government | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 spending | compound |
| 2 | spending | spending | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | on | on | ADP | _ | 4 roads | case |
| 4 | roads | road | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 spending | nmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2
Buying shares in a road company
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Buying | buy | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 2 | shares | share | NOUN | Number=Plur | 1 Buying | obj |
| 3 | in | in | ADP | _ | 6 company | case |
| 4 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 6 company | det |
| 5 | road | road | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 company | compound |
| 6 | company | company | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Buying | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | buy | gerund | shares | a road company | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent share=Theme |
Option 3
Selling the roads
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Selling | sell | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 roads | det |
| 3 | roads | road | NOUN | Number=Plur | 1 Selling | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | sell | gerund | the roads | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent road=Theme |
Option 4
Putting money in a bank
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Putting | put | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 2 | money | money | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Putting | obj |
| 3 | in | in | ADP | _ | 5 bank | case |
| 4 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 5 bank | det |
| 5 | bank | bank | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Putting | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | put | gerund | money | a bank | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent money=Theme in bank=Destination |
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/t11/