Exam question 4 · Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin a…

Ascertain the plain meaning of "black site" as employed in reports concerning the detention of prisoners.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, reports · What happens: ascertain, employ, concern, mean, detain · To what, where: plain meaning, reports, detention, black site, prisoners

This is exam question 4 of lesson 25 «Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin and war, the military and violence» of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 meaning	det
3	plain	plain	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 meaning	amod
4	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 site	case
6	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 site	punct
7	black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 site	amod
8	site	site	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 meaning	nmod
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 site	punct
10	as	as	SCONJ	_	11 employed	mark
11	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Ascertain	advcl
12	in	in	ADP	_	13 reports	case
13	reports	report	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 employed	obl
14	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	13 reports	acl
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 detention	det
16	detention	detention	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 concerning	obj
17	of	of	ADP	_	18 prisoners	case
18	prisoners	prisoner	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 detention	nmod
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the plain meaning of black site		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Topic
2	employ	participle	you not said here		reports	vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	concern	gerund	reports not said here	the detention of prisoners		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus detention=Experiencer
4	mean			black site		nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient
5	detain			prisoners		nom detention «state transitive»: of=patient

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

A disused coal mine

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 mine	det
2	disused	disuse	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 mine	amod
3	coal	coal	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 mine	compound
4	mine	mine	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	disuse	participle							tree rules

Option 2

A website of dark design

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 website	det
2	website	website	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 design	case
4	dark	dark	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 design	amod
5	design	design	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 website	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

A secret prison

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 prison	det
2	secret	secret	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 prison	amod
3	prison	prison	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

A building destroyed by fire

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 building	det
2	building	building	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	destroyed	destroy	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 building	acl
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 fire	case
5	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 destroyed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	destroy	participle		a building not said here				by fire	vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

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/25-spin-war-and-violence/e4/