Test 6 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin a…

"they called it enhanced interrogation, but it was torture, plain and simple" — what is the speaker saying?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: they, it, interrogation, speaker · What happens: call, enhance, be, say · To what, where: interrogation, torture · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 6 · ★ 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 called	punct
2	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 called	nsubj
3	called	call	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 enhanced	nsubj
5	enhanced	enhance	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 called	ccomp
6	interrogation	interrogation	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 enhanced	obj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 torture	punct
8	but	but	CCONJ	_	11 torture	cc
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 torture	nsubj
10	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 torture	cop
11	torture	torture	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 called	xcomp
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 plain	punct
13	plain	plain	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 torture	amod
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 simple	cc
15	simple	simple	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 plain	conj
16	"	"	PUNCT	_	13 plain	punct
17	—	-	PUNCT	_	3 called	punct
18	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	22 saying	obj
19	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	22 saying	aux
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 speaker	det
21	speaker	speaker	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 saying	nsubj
22	saying	say	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 called	ccomp
23	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 called	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	call speech: assert in a quote	past	they		vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	enhance in a quote	past	it	interrogation	vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent interrogation=Patient
3	is a in a quote	past	interrogation	torture	tree rules
4	say speech: assert	present · progressive	the speaker		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic

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

It was a quiz

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 quiz	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 quiz	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 quiz	det
4	quiz	quiz	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	It	a quiz					tree rules

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

The soft name hides torture

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 name	det
2	soft	soft	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 name	amod
3	name	name	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 hides	nsubj
4	hides	hide	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	torture	torture	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 hides	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hide	present	the soft name	torture					vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent torture=Patient

Option 3

It was a long interview

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 interview	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 interview	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 interview	det
4	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 interview	amod
5	interview	interview	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	It	a long interview					tree rules

Option 4

It was a friendly chat

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 chat	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 chat	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 chat	det
4	friendly	friendly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 chat	amod
5	chat	chat	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	It	a friendly chat					tree rules

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/t6/