Test 7 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin
The leaders held "constructive talks". Did they reach agreement?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: leaders · What happens: hold, reach · To what, where: constructive talks, agreement
This is test 7 · ★ 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: The leaders held "constructive talks".
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 leaders | det |
| 2 | leaders | leader | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 held | nsubj |
| 3 | held | hold | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 6 talks | punct |
| 5 | constructive | constructive | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 talks | amod |
| 6 | talks | talk | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 held | obj |
| 7 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 6 talks | punct |
| 8 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 held | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | hold | past | the leaders | constructive talks | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent talk=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: Did they reach agreement?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Did | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 reach | aux |
| 2 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 reach | nsubj |
| 3 | reach | reach | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 4 | agreement | agreement | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 reach | obj |
| 5 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 3 reach | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | reach | past · do-support | leaders = leader | agreement | vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent agreement=Theme |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
No, they never met
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No | no | INTJ | Polarity=Neg | 5 met | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 No | punct |
| 3 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 met | nsubj |
| 4 | never | never | ADV | PronType=Neg | 5 met | advmod |
| 5 | met | meet | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not meet | past | they | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
Option 2
Yes, they signed a treaty
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yes | yes | INTJ | Polarity=Pos | 4 signed | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Yes | punct |
| 3 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 signed | nsubj |
| 4 | signed | sign | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 6 treaty | det |
| 6 | treaty | treaty | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 signed | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | sign | past | they | a treaty | vn image_impression-25.1 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent treaty=Destination |
Option 3 · ✓ the right answer
Probably not
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Probably | probably | ADV | _ | 2 not | advmod |
| 2 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4
Yes, on every point
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yes | yes | INTJ | Polarity=Pos | 5 point | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 5 point | punct |
| 3 | on | on | ADP | _ | 5 point | case |
| 4 | every | every | DET | PronType=Tot | 5 point | det |
| 5 | point | point | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
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/t7/