Test 2 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin a…

"they said the target was neutralized, mate, that means dead, right?" — is the speaker right?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: they, that · What happens: say, neutralize, mean, be · To what, where: target, speaker · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 2 · ★ 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 said	punct
2	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 said	nsubj
3	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 target	det
5	target	target	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 neutralized	nsubj:pass
6	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 neutralized	aux:pass
7	neutralized	neutralize	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 said	ccomp
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 mate	punct
9	mate	mate	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 neutralized	vocative
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 means	punct
11	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	12 means	nsubj
12	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 said	ccomp
13	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 means	xcomp
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 right	punct
15	right	right	INTJ	_	12 means	discourse
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	15 right	punct
17	"	"	PUNCT	_	15 right	punct
18	—	-	PUNCT	_	21 speaker	punct
19	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	21 speaker	cop
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 speaker	det
21	speaker	speaker	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 means	parataxis
22	right	right	ADV	_	21 speaker	advmod
23	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 said	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	say speech: ask in a quote	past	they			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	neutralize in a quote	past · passive		the target	mate vocative	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient
3	mean in a quote	present	that		dead property	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
4	is a	present		the speaker	right property	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.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

No, it means moved away

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	INTJ	Polarity=Neg	4 means	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 No	punct
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 means	nsubj
4	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	moved	move	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 means	ccomp
6	away	away	ADV	_	5 moved	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	it						vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	move away	participle						away property	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

No, it means calmed down

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	INTJ	Polarity=Neg	4 means	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 No	punct
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 means	nsubj
4	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	calmed	calm	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 means	xcomp
6	down	down	ADP	_	5 calmed	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	it						vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	calm down not said to happen	participle							vn subjugate-42.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Yes, it means killed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	4 means	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Yes	punct
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 means	nsubj
4	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	killed	kill	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 means	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	it						vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	kill	participle							vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer

Option 4

No, it means captured

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	INTJ	Polarity=Neg	4 means	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 No	punct
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 means	nsubj
4	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	captured	capture	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 means	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	it						vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	capture not said to happen	participle							vn steal-10.5-1 «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/t2/