Test 12 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin
A news report says a city was emptied by "population transfer". What happened to the people?
Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: news report, population transfer · What happens: say, empty, happen · To what, where: city · Speech: someone speaks here
This is test 12 · ★ 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 news report says a city was emptied by "population transfer".
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 report | det |
| 2 | news | news | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 report | compound |
| 3 | report | report | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 says | nsubj |
| 4 | says | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 6 city | det |
| 6 | city | city | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 emptied | nsubj:pass |
| 7 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 emptied | aux:pass |
| 8 | emptied | empty | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 4 says | ccomp |
| 9 | by | by | ADP | _ | 12 transfer | case |
| 10 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 12 transfer | punct |
| 11 | population | population | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 transfer | compound |
| 12 | transfer | transfer | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 emptied | obl |
| 13 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 12 transfer | punct |
| 14 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 says | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | present | a news report | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | empty | past · passive | population transfer | a city | vn clear-10.3-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent subject=Source |
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 happened to the people?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 2 happened | nsubj |
| 2 | happened | happen | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | to | to | ADP | _ | 5 people | case |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 people | det |
| 5 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 happened | obl |
| 6 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 2 happened | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | happen | past | to the people | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
The options
Option 1 · ✓ the right answer
They were forced to leave their homes
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 forced | nsubj:pass |
| 2 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 forced | aux:pass |
| 3 | forced | force | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 4 | to | to | PART | _ | 5 leave | mark |
| 5 | leave | leave | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 forced | xcomp |
| 6 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 7 homes | nmod:poss |
| 7 | homes | home | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 leave | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | force | past · passive | They | vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | leave | to-infinitive | They not said here | their homes | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent home=Theme |
Option 2
They went on holiday
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 went | nsubj |
| 2 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | on | on | ADP | _ | 4 holiday | case |
| 4 | holiday | holiday | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 went | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go | past | They | holiday | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on holiday=Location |
Option 3 · ← Mova's choice
They moved for new jobs by choice
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 moved | nsubj |
| 2 | moved | move | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | for | for | ADP | _ | 5 jobs | case |
| 4 | new | new | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 jobs | amod |
| 5 | jobs | job | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 moved | obl |
| 6 | by | by | ADP | _ | 7 choice | case |
| 7 | choice | choice | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 moved | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | move | past | They | for new jobs; by choice | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme by choice=Trajectory |
Option 4
They were all counted for the census
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 counted | nsubj |
| 2 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 counted | aux:pass |
| 3 | all | all | ADV | _ | 4 counted | advmod |
| 4 | counted | count | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 5 | for | for | ADP | _ | 7 census | case |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 census | det |
| 7 | census | census | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 counted | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | count | past · passive | They | for the census; all property | vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
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/t12/