Test 12 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: war, the military and violence
A minister: "The deterrent keeps Britain safe." What is he talking about?
Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: minister · What happens: keep, talk about · To what, where: Britain
This is test 12 · ★ of lesson 26 «Soft words for hard things: 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 minister: "The deterrent keeps Britain safe."
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 minister | det |
| 2 | minister | minister | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 keeps | nsubj |
| 3 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 7 keeps | punct |
| 4 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 keeps | punct |
| 5 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 deterrent | det |
| 6 | deterrent | deterrent | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 keeps | nsubj |
| 7 | keeps | keep | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 8 | Britain | Britain | PROPN | Number=Sing | 7 keeps | obj |
| 9 | safe | safe | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 keeps | xcomp |
| 10 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 7 keeps | punct |
| 11 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 7 keeps | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | keep in a quote | present | a minister | Britain | safe property | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent britain=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: What is he talking about?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Rel | 4 talking | obl |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 talking | aux |
| 3 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 talking | nsubj |
| 4 | talking | talk | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 5 | about | about | ADP | _ | 4 talking | obl |
| 6 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 4 talking | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | talk about | present · progressive | minister | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
The options
Option 1
Road safety signs
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Road | Road | PROPN | Number=Sing | 2 safety | compound |
| 2 | safety | safety | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 signs | compound |
| 3 | signs | sign | NOUN | Number=Plur | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer
Britain's nuclear weapons
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Britain | Britain | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 weapons | nmod:poss |
| 2 | 's | 's | PART | _ | 1 Britain | case |
| 3 | nuclear | nuclear | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 weapons | amod |
| 4 | weapons | weapon | NOUN | Number=Plur | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3
A team of police dogs
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 team | det |
| 2 | team | team | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 dogs | compound |
| 3 | of | of | ADP | _ | 4 police | case |
| 4 | police | police | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 team | nmod |
| 5 | dogs | dog | NOUN | Number=Plur | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4
A big fence on the coast
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 fence | det |
| 2 | big | big | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 fence | amod |
| 3 | fence | fence | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 4 | on | on | ADP | _ | 6 coast | case |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 coast | det |
| 6 | coast | coast | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 fence | nmod |
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/26-war-and-the-military/t12/