Test 9 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: crime, prison and the police a…
Press office: "The minister's earlier statement is inoperative." What does it admit?
Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: earlier statement, minister, statement · What happens: be, state, admit
This is test 9 · ★ of lesson 28 «Soft words for hard things: crime, prison and the police and lying and honesty» 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: Press office: "The minister's earlier statement is inoperative."
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Press | press | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 office | compound |
| 2 | office | office | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 11 inoperative | punct |
| 4 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 11 inoperative | punct |
| 5 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 minister | det |
| 6 | minister | minister | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 statement | nmod:poss |
| 7 | 's | 's | PART | _ | 6 minister | case |
| 8 | earlier | early | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 9 statement | amod |
| 9 | statement | statement | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 inoperative | nsubj |
| 10 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 11 inoperative | cop |
| 11 | inoperative | inoperative | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 2 office | conj |
| 12 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 office | punct |
| 13 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 2 office | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is in a quote | present | the minister's earlier statement | 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 it 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 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 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 | statement | vn admit-64.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Theme |
The options
Option 1
The minister was ill
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 ill | nsubj |
| 3 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 ill | cop |
| 4 | ill | ill | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | the minister | ill property | tree rules |
Option 2
The microphone was broken
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 microphone | det |
| 2 | microphone | microphone | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 broken | nsubj:pass |
| 3 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 broken | aux:pass |
| 4 | broken | break | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | break | past · passive | the microphone | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
Option 3
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 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ 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 |
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/28-stealing-and-lying/t9/