--- title: News: "Sales of the new phone have flatlined." What does "flatlined"… — Soft words for hard things: death and… · tree and pragmatics description: News: "Sales of the new phone have flatlined." What does "flatlined" mean here? Test 8 · ★ of lesson 3 «Soft words for hard things: death and dying, illness and the body» of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mo --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/t8/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [questions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/) / [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/) / [Soft words for hard things: death and…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/) / t8 # Test 8 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: death and dying, illness and t… News: "Sales of the new phone have flatlined." What does "flatlined" mean here? **Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** Sales · **What happens:** flatlin, mean · **To what, where:** News This is test 8 · ★ of lesson 3 «Soft words for hard things: death and dying, illness and the body» 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/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/#t8). ## The question {#question} *Sentence 1:* News: "Sales of the new phone have flatlined." ```conllu # sent_id = question:euphemisms:3-death-and-feeling-poorly:t8:1 # text = News: "Sales of the new phone have flatlined." 1 News news NOUN NN Number=Sing 10 obl:unmarked _ SpaceAfter=No 2 : : PUNCT : _ 1 punct _ _ 3 " " PUNCT `` _ 4 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 4 Sales sale NOUN NNS Number=Plur 10 nsubj _ _ 5 of of ADP IN _ 8 case _ _ 6 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 8 det _ _ 7 new new ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 8 amod _ _ 8 phone phone NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 nmod _ _ 9 have have AUX VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 10 aux _ _ 10 flatlined flatlin VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 0 root _ SpaceAfter=No 11 . . PUNCT . _ 10 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 12 " " PUNCT '' _ 10 punct _ _ ``` | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **flatlin** *in a quote* | present · perfect | Sales of the new phone | News | | | | | tree rules | 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 "flatlined" mean here? ```conllu # sent_id = question:euphemisms:3-death-and-feeling-poorly:t8:2 # text = What does "flatlined" mean here? 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 " " PUNCT `` _ 4 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 4 flatlined flatlin VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part 0 root _ SpaceAfter=No 5 " " PUNCT '' _ 4 punct _ _ 6 mean mean VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 4 xcomp _ _ 7 here here ADV RB PronType=Dem 6 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 8 ? ? PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ _ ``` | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **flatlin** *in a quote* | present · do-support | | | | | | | tree rules | | 2 | **mean** | infinitive | | | | here | | | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent | ## The options {#options} ### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1} Sales went up fast ```conllu # sent_id = question:euphemisms:3-death-and-feeling-poorly:t8:o1:1 # text = Sales went up fast 1 Sales sale NOUN NNS Number=Plur 2 nsubj _ _ 2 went go VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 3 up up ADV RB _ 2 advmod _ _ 4 fast fast ADV RB Degree=Pos 2 advmod _ _ ``` | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **go up** | past | Sales | | | | | fast *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute | ### Option 2 {#o2} The phone died ```conllu # sent_id = question:euphemisms:3-death-and-feeling-poorly:t8:o2:1 # text = The phone died 1 The the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 2 det _ _ 2 phone phone NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 nsubj _ _ 3 died die VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ ``` | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **die** | past | the phone | | | | | | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute | ### Option 3 {#o3} The phone went flat ```conllu # sent_id = question:euphemisms:3-death-and-feeling-poorly:t8:o3:1 # text = The phone went flat 1 The the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 2 det _ _ 2 phone phone NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 nsubj _ _ 3 went go VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 4 flat flat ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 3 xcomp _ _ ``` | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **go** | past | the phone | | | | | flat *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ### Option 4 · ✓ the right answer {#o4} Sales stopped growing ```conllu # sent_id = question:euphemisms:3-death-and-feeling-poorly:t8:o4:1 # text = Sales stopped growing 1 Sales sale NOUN NNS Number=Plur 2 nsubj _ _ 2 stopped stop VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 3 growing grow VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 2 xcomp _ _ ``` | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **stop** | past | Sales | | | | | | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality | | 2 | **grow** | gerund | Sales *not said here* | | | | | | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | **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. - ← previous: [Soft words for hard things: death and…, test 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/t7/) - next →: [Soft words for hard things: death and…, test 9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/t9/) - ↑ back to [Soft words for hard things: death and dying, illness and the body](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/)