Exam question 2 · Borrowed words from far away: Hindi, Arabic, Chinese, Ukra…

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the words "tea" and "chai"?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: words

This is exam question 2 of lesson 24 «Borrowed words from far away: Hindi, Arabic, Chinese, Ukrainian and more» of the language 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 words	det
10	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obj
11	"	"	PUNCT	_	12 tea	punct
12	tea	tea	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 words	appos
13	"	"	PUNCT	_	12 tea	punct
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 chai	cc
15	"	"	PUNCT	_	16 chai	punct
16	chai	chai	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 tea	conj
17	"	"	PUNCT	_	16 chai	punct
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the words				of the following statements; accurately 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.

The options

Option 1

"Chai" derives from the English "tea"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Chai	punct
2	Chai	chai	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 derives	nsubj
3	"	"	PUNCT	_	2 Chai	punct
4	derives	derive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	from	from	ADP	_	9 tea	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 tea	det
7	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 tea	compound
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 tea	punct
9	tea	tea	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 derives	obl
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	9 tea	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	derive	present	Chai			the English tea			vn create-26.4 «NP V NP PP.material»: agent=Agent from tea=Material

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Both derive ultimately from Chinese, by maritime and overland routes respectively

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	2 derive	advmod
2	derive	derive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	ultimately	ultimately	ADV	_	2 derive	advmod
4	from	from	ADP	_	5 Chinese	case
5	Chinese	Chinese	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 derive	obl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 routes	punct
7	by	by	ADP	_	11 routes	case
8	maritime	maritime	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 routes	amod
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 overland	cc
10	overland	overland	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 maritime	conj
11	routes	route	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 derive	conj
12	respectively	respectively	ADV	_	2 derive	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	derive	present				Chinese		respectively, ultimately property	vn create-26.4 «NP V NP PP.material»: agent=Agent from chinese=Material

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

They are entirely unrelated in origin, the former being Chinese and the latter of Persian derivation

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 unrelated	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 unrelated	cop
3	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	4 unrelated	advmod
4	unrelated	unrelated	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 origin	case
6	origin	origin	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 unrelated	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 Chinese	punct
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 Chinese	det
9	former	former	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 Chinese	amod
10	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	11 Chinese	cop
11	Chinese	Chinese	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 unrelated	conj
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 latter	cc
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 latter	det
14	latter	latter	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 unrelated	conj
15	of	of	ADP	_	17 derivation	case
16	Persian	persian	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 derivation	amod
17	derivation	derivation	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 latter	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	other	roles by
1	is	present	They	origin	entirely, unrelated property	tree rules
2	is	gerund	They not said here		chinese property	tree rules
3	be		They not said here		of Persian derivation	tree rules

Option 4

Both derive from Arabic

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	2 derive	advmod
2	derive	derive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	from	from	ADP	_	4 Arabic	case
4	Arabic	Arabic	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 derive	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	derive	present				Arabic			vn create-26.4 «NP V NP PP.material»: agent=Agent from arabic=Material

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/24-borrowed-words-from-far-away/e2/