Test 10 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin a…
The campaign's "messaging" was criticised. What was criticised?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · What happens: criticise · To what, where: messaging
This is test 10 · ★ 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: The campaign's "messaging" was criticised.
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 campaign | det |
| 2 | campaign | campaign | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 messaging | nmod:poss |
| 3 | 's | 's | PART | _ | 2 campaign | case |
| 4 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 messaging | punct |
| 5 | messaging | messaging | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 criticised | nsubj:pass |
| 6 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 messaging | punct |
| 7 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 criticised | aux:pass |
| 8 | criticised | criticise | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 9 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 criticised | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | criticise | past · passive | the campaign's messaging | tree rules |
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 was criticised?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 3 criticised | nsubj:pass |
| 2 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 criticised | aux:pass |
| 3 | criticised | criticise | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 4 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 3 criticised | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | criticise | past · passive | tree rules |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
Its post office
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Its | its | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 3 office | nmod:poss |
| 2 | post | post | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 office | compound |
| 3 | office | office | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2 · ✓ the right answer
Its spin or propaganda
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Its | its | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 2 spin | nmod:poss |
| 2 | spin | spin | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 4 propaganda | cc |
| 4 | propaganda | propaganda | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 spin | conj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | spin | Its = it | nom spin «event transitive»: poss=agent |
Option 3
Its text messages
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Its | its | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 3 messages | nmod:poss |
| 2 | text | text | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 messages | compound |
| 3 | messages | message | NOUN | Number=Plur | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4
Its phone bills
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Its | its | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 3 bills | nmod:poss |
| 2 | phone | phone | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 bills | compound |
| 3 | bills | bill | NOUN | Number=Plur | root | root |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | bill | Its = it | nom bill «communication transitive»: poss=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/t10/