Exam question 2 · Britain and Ireland: a short story

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the effect of the Norman Conquest upon the English language?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · What happens: follow, characteris, effect · To what, where: effect, Norman Conquest

This is exam question 2 of lesson 37 «Britain and Ireland: a short story» of the history 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 effect	det
10	effect	effect	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	14 Conquest	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 Conquest	det
13	Norman	Norman	PROPN	Number=Sing	14 Conquest	compound
14	Conquest	Conquest	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 effect	nmod
15	upon	upon	ADP	_	18 language	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 language	det
17	English	English	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 language	amod
18	language	language	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obl
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present	the effect of the Norman Conquest	of the following statements; upon the English language; accurately property	tree rules
3	effect		the Norman Conquest		nom effect «phenomenon transitive»: of=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.

The options

Option 1

English became the language of France

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 became	nsubj
2	became	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 language	det
4	language	language	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 became	xcomp
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 France	case
6	France	France	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 language	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	past	English	the language of France					vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

Option 2

English acquired no new vocabulary

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 acquired	nsubj
2	acquired	acquire	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	5 vocabulary	det
4	new	new	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 vocabulary	amod
5	vocabulary	vocabulary	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 acquired	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	acquire	past	English	no new vocabulary					vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent vocabulary=Theme

Option 3

English was entirely replaced by Latin in all spoken and written use

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 replaced	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 replaced	aux:pass
3	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	4 replaced	advmod
4	replaced	replace	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 Latin	case
6	Latin	Latin	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 replaced	obl
7	in	in	SCONJ	_	9 spoken	mark
8	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	9 spoken	nsubj:pass
9	spoken	speak	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 replaced	advcl
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 written	cc
11	written	write	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 spoken	conj
12	use	use	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 replaced	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	replace	past · passive	Latin	English	entirely property	vn substitute-13.6.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme subject=Co-Theme
2	speak speech: other	participle · passive		all		tree rules
3	write	participle				vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	use	present	Latin not said here			vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Thousands of words of French origin entered English

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Thousands	thousand	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 entered	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	3 words	case
3	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Thousands	nmod
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 origin	case
5	French	French	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 origin	amod
6	origin	origin	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 words	nmod
7	entered	enter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 entered	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	enter	past	Thousands of words of French origin		English				vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme english=Destination
2	word			French origin					nom word «communication transitive»: of=patient

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/history/37-britain-and-ireland-a-short-story/e2/