Test 7 · Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes
Tara says: "'The market had a correction' means it fixed its mistakes, yeah?" Is she right?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: Tara, market · What happens: say, have, mean, fix, mistake, be · To what, where: correction, mistakes · Speech: someone speaks here
This is test 7 of lesson 33 «Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes» 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: Tara says: "'The market had a correction' means it fixed its mistakes, yeah?"
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tara | tara | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 says | nsubj |
| 2 | says | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 2 says | punct |
| 4 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 8 had | punct |
| 5 | ' | ' | PUNCT | _ | 8 had | punct |
| 6 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 market | det |
| 7 | market | market | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 had | nsubj |
| 8 | had | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 means | nsubj |
| 9 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 10 correction | det |
| 10 | correction | correction | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 had | obj |
| 11 | ' | ' | PUNCT | _ | 8 had | punct |
| 12 | means | mean | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 2 says | parataxis |
| 13 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 14 fixed | nsubj |
| 14 | fixed | fix | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 means | ccomp |
| 15 | its | its | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 16 mistakes | nmod:poss |
| 16 | mistakes | mistake | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 fixed | obj |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 fixed | punct |
| 18 | yeah | yeah | INTJ | _ | 12 means | discourse |
| 19 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 12 means | punct |
| 20 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 2 says | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: ask | present | Tara | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | have in a quote | past | the market | a correction | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent correction=Patient | ||||
| 3 | mean in a quote | present | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | ||||||
| 4 | fix in a quote | past | market | market's mistakes | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent mistake=Patient | ||||
| 5 | mistake in a quote | market | nom mistake «act intransitive»: 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: Is she right?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 right | cop |
| 2 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 right | nsubj |
| 3 | right | right | ADV | _ | root | root |
| 4 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 3 right | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | Tara | right property | tree rules |
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer
No, it means prices fell sharply
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 | prices | price | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 fell | nsubj |
| 6 | fell | fall | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 means | ccomp |
| 7 | sharply | sharply | ADV | _ | 6 fell | 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 | fall | past | prices | sharply property | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
Option 2
Yes, it got more customers
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yes | yes | INTJ | Polarity=Pos | 4 got | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Yes | punct |
| 3 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 got | nsubj |
| 4 | got | get | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | more | more | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 6 customers | amod |
| 6 | customers | customer | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 got | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | get | past | it | more customers | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer customer=Stimulus |
Option 3
No, it means the market closed
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 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 market | det |
| 6 | market | market | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 means | obj |
| 7 | closed | close | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 6 market | acl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | mean | present | it | the market | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent market=Topic | ||||
| 2 | close | participle | the market not said here | vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
Option 4
Yes, it fixed its spelling
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yes | yes | INTJ | Polarity=Pos | 4 fixed | discourse |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Yes | punct |
| 3 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 fixed | nsubj |
| 4 | fixed | fix | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | its | its | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 6 spelling | nmod:poss |
| 6 | spelling | spelling | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 fixed | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | fix | past | it | its spelling | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent spelling=Patient | ||||
| 2 | spell | its = it | nom spelling «communication transitive»: poss=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/33-failure-and-mistakes/t7/