Exam question 2 · English words that came from French
Ascertain the French expression from which the distress call "Mayday" is derived.
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, derive · To what, where: French expression, distress call
This is exam question 2 of lesson 36 «English words that came from French» of the French course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. 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
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ascertain | ascertain | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 expression | det |
| 3 | French | French | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 expression | amod |
| 4 | expression | expression | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Ascertain | obj |
| 5 | from | from | ADP | _ | 6 which | case |
| 6 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 14 derived | obl |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 call | det |
| 8 | distress | distress | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 call | compound |
| 9 | call | call | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 derived | nsubj:pass |
| 10 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 11 Mayday | punct |
| 11 | Mayday | Mayday | PROPN | Number=Sing | 9 call | appos |
| 12 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 11 Mayday | punct |
| 13 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 14 derived | aux:pass |
| 14 | derived | derive | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 4 expression | acl:relcl |
| 15 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 1 Ascertain | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ascertain | imperative | you not said here | the French expression | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent expression=Topic | ||||
| 2 | derive | present · passive | the distress call | the French expression | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP PP.material»: subject=Result from which=Material |
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.
The options
Option 1 · ← Mova's choice
médaille
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | médaille | médaille | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2 · ✓ the right answer
m'aider
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | m'aider | m'aider | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3
mai
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | mai | mai | X | Foreign=Yes | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4
maison
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | maison | maison | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
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/french/36-english-words-that-came-from-french/e2/