--- title: Vivid example: a general who says "the target was neutralized" means… — Soft words for hard things: death and dying · tree and pragmatics description: Vivid example: a general who says "the target was neutralized" means that people were killed, but the words make it sound like switching off a machine. Who acts: general, Vivid example, words, it. A sentence of the lesson «Soft words for hard things: death and dying» of the euphemisms course of Mova --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/2-death-official-and-slang/4/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/) / [Soft words for hard things: death and…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/2-death-official-and-slang/) / 4 # Soft words for hard things: death and dying, sentence 4 Vivid example: a general who says "the target was neutralized" means that people were killed, but the words make it sound like switching off a machine. **Who acts:** general, Vivid example, words, it · **What happens:** say, neutralize, mean, kill, make, sound · **To what, where:** target, people, machine · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of the lesson «Soft words for hard things: death and dying» of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (general, Vivid example, words, it), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = school:euphemisms:002-death-official-and-slang.lesson:4 # text = Vivid example: a general who says "the target was neutralized" means that people were killed, but the words make it sound like switching off a machine. # source = school lesson (ours) # course = euphemisms # lesson = 002-death-official-and-slang.lesson # annotation = Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R6-punct-agree ×1 1 Vivid vivid ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 2 amod _ _ 2 example example NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 nsubj _ _ 3 : : PUNCT : _ 14 punct _ _ 4 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 5 det _ _ 5 general general NOUN NN Number=Sing 2 appos _ _ 6 who who PRON WP PronType=Rel 7 nsubj _ _ 7 says say VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 5 acl:relcl _ _ 8 " " PUNCT `` _ 12 punct _ _ 9 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 10 det _ _ 10 target target NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 nsubj:pass _ _ 11 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 12 aux:pass _ _ 12 neutralized neutralize VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 7 ccomp _ _ 13 " " PUNCT '' _ 12 punct _ _ 14 means mean VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 15 that that SCONJ IN _ 18 mark _ _ 16 people people NOUN NNS Number=Plur 18 nsubj _ _ 17 were be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 18 aux:pass _ _ 18 killed kill VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 14 ccomp _ _ 19 , , PUNCT , _ 23 punct _ _ 20 but but CCONJ CC _ 23 cc _ _ 21 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 22 det _ _ 22 words word NOUN NNS Number=Plur 23 nsubj _ _ 23 make make VERB VBP Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 14 conj _ _ 24 it it PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 25 nsubj _ _ 25 sound sound VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 23 xcomp _ _ 26 like like SCONJ IN _ 27 mark _ _ 27 switching switch VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 25 advcl _ _ 28 off off ADP RP _ 27 compound:prt _ _ 29 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 30 det _ _ 30 machine machine NOUN NN Number=Sing 27 obj _ _ 31 . . PUNCT . _ 2 punct _ Agree=R6-punct-agree|Haiku=14:punct ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} No stored speech act for this sentence. | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | a general | | | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 2 | **neutralize** *in a quote* | past · passive | | the target | | | | | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient | | 3 | **mean** | present | Vivid example | | | | | | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 4 | **kill** | past · passive | | people | | | | | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme | | 5 | **make** | present | the words | | | | | | tree rules | | 6 | **sound** | infinitive | it | | | | | | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus | | 7 | **switch off** | gerund | | a machine | | | | | vn convert-26.6.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent machine=Patient | 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. **Licence: [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)**, as the whole of Mova corpus 0.4, of which this treebank (the agreed school, `mova-school-agreed-en.conllu`) is part. The lessons were written for Mova's primary school. Sentence `school:euphemisms:002-death-official-and-slang.lesson:4`. **The tree:** Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R6-punct-agree ×1. **The frames** are read from the tree by Mova's frames reader (`prag`) when this page is built, the lesson read in order, so a pronoun may be resolved from an earlier sentence. See the [release 0.4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/releases/0.4/). - ← previous: [Soft words for hard things: death and…, 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/2-death-official-and-slang/3/) - next →: [Soft words for hard things: death and…, 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/2-death-official-and-slang/5/) - ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/2-death-official-and-slang/)