Test 3 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin

"council's calling it efficiency savings, means the library's shut, innit" — what does the speaker understand?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: council, calling, speaker · What happens: call, mean, understand · To what, where: it, shut innit · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 3 · ★ 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	4 calling	punct
2	council	council	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 calling	nsubj
3	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 calling	aux
4	calling	call	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	9 means	csubj
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 calling	obj
6	efficiency	efficiency	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 savings	compound
7	savings	savings	NOUN	Number=Ptan	4 calling	obj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 calling	punct
9	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 library	det
11	library	library	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 innit	nmod:poss
12	's	's	PART	_	11 library	case
13	shut	shut	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 innit	amod
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 innit	punct
15	innit	innit	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 means	obj
16	"	"	PUNCT	_	15 innit	punct
17	—	-	PUNCT	_	22 understand	punct
18	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	22 understand	obj
19	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	22 understand	aux
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 speaker	det
21	speaker	speaker	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 understand	nsubj
22	understand	understand	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 means	parataxis
23	?	?	PUNCT	_	9 means	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	call in a quote	present · progressive	council	it	vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme savings=Result
2	mean in a quote	present	calling	the library's shut innit	tree rules
3	understand	present · do-support	the speaker		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus

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 library got cheaper lights

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 library	det
2	library	library	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 got	nsubj
3	got	get	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	cheaper	cheap	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	5 lights	amod
5	lights	light	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 got	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	get	past	the library	cheaper lights					vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer light=Stimulus

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Efficiency savings are budget cuts

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Efficiency	efficiency	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 savings	compound
2	savings	savings	NOUN	Number=Ptan	5 cuts	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 cuts	cop
4	budget	budget	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 cuts	compound
5	cuts	cut	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	Efficiency savings	budget cuts					tree rules

Option 3

The council saved money by luck

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 council	det
2	council	council	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	saved	save	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 council	acl
4	money	money	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 saved	obj
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 luck	case
6	luck	luck	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 saved	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	save	participle	the council not said here	money				by luck	vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent money=Theme

Option 4

The library is being enlarged

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 library	det
2	library	library	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 enlarged	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 enlarged	aux:pass
4	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 enlarged	aux:pass
5	enlarged	enlarge	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	enlarge	present · passive		the library					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=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/24-government-spin/t3/