Test 3 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin a…
A government spokesman: "The minister's earlier statement is now inoperative." What does this admit?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: government spokesman, minister, this · What happens: be, state, admit
This is test 3 · ★ 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: A government spokesman: "The minister's earlier statement is now inoperative."
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 spokesman | det |
| 2 | government | government | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 spokesman | compound |
| 3 | spokesman | spokesman | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 inoperative | nsubj:outer |
| 4 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 13 inoperative | punct |
| 5 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 13 inoperative | punct |
| 6 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 minister | det |
| 7 | minister | minister | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 statement | nmod:poss |
| 8 | 's | 's | PART | _ | 7 minister | case |
| 9 | earlier | early | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 10 statement | amod |
| 10 | statement | statement | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 inoperative | nsubj |
| 11 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 13 inoperative | cop |
| 12 | now | now | ADV | PronType=Dem | 13 inoperative | advmod |
| 13 | inoperative | inoperative | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 14 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 13 inoperative | punct |
| 15 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 13 inoperative | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is in a quote | present | a government spokesman | now | inoperative property | tree rules | |||
| 2 | state in a quote | the minister | nom statement «communication transitive»: poss=agent |
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 does this admit?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 4 admit | obj |
| 2 | does | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 admit | aux |
| 3 | this | this | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 4 admit | nsubj |
| 4 | admit | admit | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 5 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 4 admit | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | admit speech: other | present · do-support | this | vn admit-64.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Theme |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
The statement was too long
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 statement | det |
| 2 | statement | statement | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 long | nsubj |
| 3 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 long | cop |
| 4 | too | too | ADV | _ | 5 long | advmod |
| 5 | long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | the statement | long property | tree rules |
Option 2 · ✓ the right answer
The earlier statement was false
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 statement | det |
| 2 | earlier | early | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 3 statement | amod |
| 3 | statement | statement | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 false | nsubj |
| 4 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 false | cop |
| 5 | false | false | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | the earlier statement | false property | tree rules |
Option 3
The minister's microphone broke
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 minister | det |
| 2 | minister | minister | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 microphone | nmod:poss |
| 3 | 's | 's | PART | _ | 2 minister | case |
| 4 | microphone | microphone | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 broke | nsubj |
| 5 | broke | break | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | break | past | the minister's microphone | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
Option 4
The minister has left
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 minister | det |
| 2 | minister | minister | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 left | nsubj:pass |
| 3 | has | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 left | aux |
| 4 | left | leave | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | leave | present · perfect · passive | the minister | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
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/t3/