Test 1 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin a…
News: "Three soldiers were killed by friendly fire." Who fired the shots?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: friendly fire · What happens: kill, fire · To what, where: Three soldiers, shots
This is test 1 · ★ 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. 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: News: "Three soldiers were killed by friendly fire."
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | News | news | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 2 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 7 killed | punct |
| 3 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 killed | punct |
| 4 | Three | three | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 5 soldiers | nummod |
| 5 | soldiers | soldier | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 killed | nsubj:pass |
| 6 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 killed | aux:pass |
| 7 | killed | kill | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 1 News | conj |
| 8 | by | by | ADP | _ | 10 fire | case |
| 9 | friendly | friendly | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 10 fire | amod |
| 10 | fire | fire | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 killed | obl |
| 11 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 1 News | punct |
| 12 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 1 News | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | kill in a quote | past · passive | friendly fire | Three soldiers | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=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: Who fired the shots?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 2 fired | nsubj |
| 2 | fired | fire | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 shots | det |
| 4 | shots | shot | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 fired | obj |
| 5 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 2 fired | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | fire | past | the shots | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shot=Theme |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
Nobody, it was an accident with a fire
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nobody | nobody | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Neg | 6 accident | nsubj |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Nobody | punct |
| 3 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 6 accident | nsubj |
| 4 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 accident | cop |
| 5 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 6 accident | det |
| 6 | accident | accident | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 7 | with | with | ADP | _ | 9 fire | case |
| 8 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 9 fire | det |
| 9 | fire | fire | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 accident | nmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | past | Nobody | a accident | with a fire | tree rules |
Option 2
A friendly neighbour
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 neighbour | det |
| 2 | friendly | friendly | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 neighbour | amod |
| 3 | neighbour | neighbour | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3
The enemy, on purpose
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 enemy | det |
| 2 | enemy | enemy | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 2 enemy | punct |
| 4 | on | on | ADP | _ | 5 purpose | case |
| 5 | purpose | purpose | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 enemy | nmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4 · ✓ the right answer
Their own side, by mistake
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 3 side | nmod:poss |
| 2 | own | own | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 side | amod |
| 3 | side | side | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 4 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 6 mistake | punct |
| 5 | by | by | ADP | _ | 6 mistake | case |
| 6 | mistake | mistake | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 side | conj |
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/25-spin-war-and-violence/t1/