Test 4 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin
A government announces "austerity measures". What will most people notice?
Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: government, most people · What happens: announce, notice · To what, where: austerity measures
This is test 4 · ★ 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 government announces "austerity measures".
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 government | det |
| 2 | government | government | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 announces | nsubj |
| 3 | announces | announce | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 6 measures | punct |
| 5 | austerity | austerity | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 measures | compound |
| 6 | measures | measure | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 announces | obj |
| 7 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 6 measures | punct |
| 8 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 announces | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | announce speech: other | present | a government | austerity measures | vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent measure=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 will most people notice?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | root | root |
| 2 | will | will | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 5 notice | aux |
| 3 | most | most | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 4 people | amod |
| 4 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 notice | nsubj |
| 5 | notice | notice | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 1 What | acl:relcl |
| 6 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 1 What | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | notice | future | most people | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
The options
Option 1
Higher pensions
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Higher | high | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 2 pensions | amod |
| 2 | pensions | pension | NOUN | Number=Plur | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer
Less public spending on services
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Less | less | ADV | Degree=Cmp | 2 public | advmod |
| 2 | public | public | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 spending | amod |
| 3 | spending | spending | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 4 | on | on | ADP | _ | 5 services | case |
| 5 | services | service | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 spending | nmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3
New hospitals and schools being built
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New | new | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 2 hospitals | amod |
| 2 | hospitals | hospital | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 built | nsubj:pass |
| 3 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 4 schools | cc |
| 4 | schools | school | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 hospitals | conj |
| 5 | being | be | AUX | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 6 built | aux:pass |
| 6 | built | build | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | build | gerund · passive | New hospitals and schools | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |
Option 4
More free buses for everyone
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | More | more | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 3 buses | amod |
| 2 | free | free | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 buses | amod |
| 3 | buses | bus | NOUN | Number=Plur | root | root |
| 4 | for | for | ADP | _ | 5 everyone | case |
| 5 | everyone | everyone | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Tot | 3 buses | 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/t4/