---
title: Press office: "The minister's earlier statement is inoperative." Wha… — Soft words for hard things: crime, pri… · tree and pragmatics
description: Press office: "The minister's earlier statement is inoperative." What does it admit? 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, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and
---

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# Test 9 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: crime, prison and the police a…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Press office: "The minister's earlier statement is inoperative." What does it admit?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 4 · **The right answer:** option 4 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** earlier statement, minister, statement · **What happens:** be, state, admit

<!-- .vabout -->
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](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/euphemisms/28-stealing-and-lying/#t9).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* Press office: "The minister's earlier statement is inoperative."

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:28-stealing-and-lying:t9:1
# text = Press office: "The minister's earlier statement is inoperative."
1	Press	press	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	compound	_	_
2	office	office	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
4	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	minister	minister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	's	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	earlier	early	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	9	amod	_	_
9	statement	statement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
10	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	inoperative	inoperative	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | 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 |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 2:* What does it admit?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:28-stealing-and-lying:t9:2
# text = What does it admit?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	obj	_	_
2	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	admit	admit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | 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 {#options}

### Option 1 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The minister was ill

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:28-stealing-and-lying:t9:o1:1
# text = The minister was ill
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	minister	minister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the minister |  |  |  |  | ill *property* | tree rules |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The microphone was broken

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:28-stealing-and-lying:t9:o2:1
# text = The microphone was broken
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	microphone	microphone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | 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 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The statement was too long

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:28-stealing-and-lying:t9:o3:1
# text = The statement was too long
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	statement	statement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	too	too	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | 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 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The earlier statement was false

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:28-stealing-and-lying:t9:o4:1
# text = The earlier statement was false
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	earlier	early	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	amod	_	_
3	statement	statement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	false	false	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the earlier statement |  |  |  |  | false *property* | tree rules |

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**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.

<!-- /div -->

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