Test 11 · ★ · Borrowed words: French, Norse and Latin

Your mate says "English is pure, mate, no foreign words." What's the best way to describe English?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: mate, English, best way · What happens: say, be, describe · To what, where: English · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 11 · ★ of lesson 23 «Borrowed words: French, Norse and Latin» of the language 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.

The question

Sentence 1: Your mate says "English is pure, mate, no foreign words."

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 mate	nmod:poss
2	mate	mate	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 says	nsubj
3	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	"	"	PUNCT	_	7 pure	punct
5	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 pure	nsubj
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 pure	cop
7	pure	pure	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 says	ccomp
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 mate	punct
9	mate	mate	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 pure	vocative
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 words	punct
11	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	13 words	det
12	foreign	foreign	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 words	amod
13	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 says	parataxis
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	13 words	punct
15	"	"	PUNCT	_	13 words	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	Your mate						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	is in a quote	present	English					mate vocative; pure property	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's the best way to describe English?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 way	det
4	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	5 way	amod
5	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
6	to	to	PART	_	7 describe	mark
7	describe	describe	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 way	acl
8	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 describe	obj
9	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the best way						tree rules
2	describe	to-infinitive	the best way not said here	English					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent english=Theme

The options

Option 1

A dialect of Latin

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 dialect	det
2	dialect	dialect	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 Latin	case
4	Latin	Latin	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 dialect	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

A mixing bowl: an Old English core with lots of borrowed words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 bowl	det
2	mixing	mixing	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 bowl	compound
3	bowl	bowl	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	:	:	PUNCT	_	8 core	punct
5	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 core	det
6	Old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 core	amod
7	English	English	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 core	amod
8	core	core	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 bowl	nmod
9	with	with	ADP	_	10 lots	case
10	lots	lot	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 core	nmod
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 words	case
12	borrowed	borrow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	13 words	amod
13	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 lots	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	borrow	participle							vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 3

A dialect of French that lost its spelling rules after the year 1066

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 dialect	det
2	dialect	dialect	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 lost	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 French	case
4	French	French	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 dialect	nmod
5	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 lost	nsubj
6	lost	lose	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 rules	nmod:poss
8	spelling	spelling	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 rules	compound
9	rules	rule	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 lost	obj
10	after	after	ADP	_	12 year	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 year	det
12	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 lost	obl
13	1066	1066	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	12 year	flat

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lose	past	a dialect of French	dialect's spelling rules			year		vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rule=Eventuality
2	rule		dialect						nom rule «cognition intransitive»: poss=agent

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

A pure language with no borrowings at all, just as it was 1,500 years ago

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 language	det
2	pure	pure	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 language	amod
3	language	language	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	with	with	ADP	_	6 borrowings	case
5	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	6 borrowings	det
6	borrowings	borrowing	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 language	nmod
7	at	at	ADP	_	8 all	case
8	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	6 borrowings	nmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 language	punct
10	just	just	ADV	_	15 years	advmod
11	as	as	SCONJ	_	15 years	mark
12	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 years	nsubj
13	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	15 years	cop
14	1,500	1,500	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	15 years	nummod
15	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 language	parataxis
16	ago	ago	ADV	_	15 years	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	language	1,500 years				ago property	tree rules

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/language/23-borrowed-words-french-norse-and-latin/t11/