Test 3 · Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes
News: "After the failure of its app, the company announced an exciting pivot." What really happened?
Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: News, app · What happens: announce, fail, happen · To what, where: exciting pivot
This is test 3 of lesson 34 «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: News: "After the failure of its app, the company announced an exciting pivot."
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | News | news | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 announced | nsubj |
| 2 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 6 failure | punct |
| 3 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 6 failure | punct |
| 4 | After | after | ADP | _ | 6 failure | case |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 failure | det |
| 6 | failure | failure | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 News | conj |
| 7 | of | of | ADP | _ | 9 app | case |
| 8 | its | its | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 9 app | nmod:poss |
| 9 | app | app | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 failure | nmod |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 company | punct |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 company | det |
| 12 | company | company | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 failure | conj |
| 13 | announced | announce | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 14 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 16 pivot | det |
| 15 | exciting | exciting | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 16 pivot | amod |
| 16 | pivot | pivot | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 announced | obj |
| 17 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 13 announced | punct |
| 18 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 13 announced | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | announce speech: other in a quote | past | News and the failure of its app and the company | a exciting pivot | vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pivot=Theme | ||||
| 2 | fail in a quote | its app | nom failure «act intransitive»: of=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 really happened?
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 3 happened | nsubj |
| 2 | really | really | ADV | _ | 3 happened | advmod |
| 3 | happened | happen | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 3 happened | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | happen | past | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
The options
Option 1
The company closed forever
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 company | det |
| 2 | company | company | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | closed | close | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 2 company | acl |
| 4 | forever | forever | ADV | _ | 3 closed | advmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | close | participle | the company not said here | forever property | vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer
The company's first plan failed and it changed plan
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 company | det |
| 2 | company | company | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 plan | nmod:poss |
| 3 | 's | 's | PART | _ | 2 company | case |
| 4 | first | first | ADJ | Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord | 5 plan | amod |
| 5 | plan | plan | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 failed | nsubj |
| 6 | failed | fail | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 7 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 9 changed | cc |
| 8 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 changed | nsubj |
| 9 | changed | change | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 failed | conj |
| 10 | plan | plan | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 changed | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | fail | past | the company's first plan | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 2 | change | past | plan | plan | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent plan=Patient | ||||
| 3 | plan | the company | nom plan «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |
Option 3
The company built a spinning app
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 company | det |
| 2 | company | company | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 built | nsubj |
| 3 | built | build | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 6 app | det |
| 5 | spinning | spin | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 6 app | amod |
| 6 | app | app | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 built | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | build | past | the company | a spinning app | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset app=Product | ||||
| 2 | spin | gerund | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
Option 4
The company's app was a big hit
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 company | det |
| 2 | company | company | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 app | nmod:poss |
| 3 | 's | 's | PART | _ | 2 company | case |
| 4 | app | app | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 hit | nsubj |
| 5 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 hit | cop |
| 6 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 8 hit | det |
| 7 | big | big | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 hit | amod |
| 8 | hit | hit | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | past | the company's app | a big hit | 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/34-failure-and-mistakes/t3/