Exam question 1 · Words that changed their meaning

Identify the term designating the alteration of a word's meaning over the course of time.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, term, word · What happens: identify, designate, alter, mean · To what, where: term, alteration, course, meaning

This is exam question 1 of lesson 38 «Words that changed their meaning» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 term	det
3	term	term	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	designating	designate	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 term	acl
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 alteration	det
6	alteration	alteration	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 designating	obj
7	of	of	ADP	_	11 meaning	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 word	det
9	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 meaning	nmod:poss
10	's	's	PART	_	9 word	case
11	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 alteration	nmod
12	over	over	ADP	_	14 course	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 course	det
14	course	course	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 designating	obl
15	of	of	ADP	_	16 time	case
16	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 course	nmod
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the term		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent term=Theme
2	designate	gerund	the term not said here	the alteration of a word's meaning	the course of time	vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent alteration=Theme
3	alter			a word's meaning		nom alteration «event transitive»: of=patient
4	mean		a word			nom meaning «communication transitive»: poss=agent

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

Clipping

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Clipping	clipping	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Semantic change

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Semantic	semantic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 change	amod
2	change	change	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

Option 3

Inflection

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Inflection	inflection	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

Option 4

Back-formation

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Back	back	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 formation	compound
2	-	-	PUNCT	_	1 Back	punct
3	formation	formation	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/language/38-words-that-changed-their-meaning/e1/