Test 10 · Words that changed their meaning

Why might comparing an English word with German help you guess its old meaning?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, help · What happens: compare, guess, mean · To what, where: English word, old meaning

This is test 10 of lesson 38 «Words that changed their meaning» 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	3 comparing	advmod
2	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 comparing	aux
3	comparing	compare	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 word	det
5	English	English	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 word	amod
6	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 comparing	obj
7	with	with	ADP	_	9 help	case
8	German	German	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 help	amod
9	help	help	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 word	nmod
10	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	11 guess	nsubj
11	guess	guess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 help	acl:relcl
12	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 meaning	nmod:poss
13	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 meaning	amod
14	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 guess	obj
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 comparing	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	compare	might		a English word	with German help	vn amalgamate-22.2-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent word=Patient with help=Co-Patient
2	guess	present	you	help's old meaning		vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Theme
3	mean		help			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

German speakers invented every English word and gave them to England later

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	German	German	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 speakers	amod
2	speakers	speaker	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 invented	nsubj
3	invented	invent	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	6 word	det
5	English	English	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 word	amod
6	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 invented	obj
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 gave	cc
8	gave	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 invented	conj
9	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 gave	iobj
10	to	to	ADP	_	11 England	case
11	England	England	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 gave	obl
12	later	late	ADV	Degree=Cmp	3 invented	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	invent	past	German speakers	every English word				late property	vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Result
2	give	past	German speakers not said here		speakers = speaker			to England	vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Theme to england=Recipient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

English and German are related, so German sometimes keeps the old sense

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 related	nsubj
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 German	cc
3	German	German	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 English	conj
4	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 related	cop
5	related	related	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 German	punct
7	so	so	ADV	_	8 German	advmod
8	German	German	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 related	conj
9	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	PronType=Ind	10 keeps	advmod
10	keeps	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 related	advcl
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 sense	det
12	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 sense	amod
13	sense	sense	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 keeps	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	present	English		related property	tree rules
2	be		English not said here			tree rules
3	keep	present	English not said here	the old sense	sometimes property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sense=Theme

Option 3

English copied all its words from German last century

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	English	English	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 copied	nsubj
2	copied	copy	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	5 words	det:predet
4	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 words	nmod:poss
5	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 copied	obj
6	from	from	ADP	_	9 century	case
7	German	German	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 century	amod
8	last	last	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 century	amod
9	century	century	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 copied	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	copy	past	English	its words			century		vn scribble-25.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Theme
2	word		its = it						nom word «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

German words never change meaning at all

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	German	German	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 words	amod
2	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 change	nsubj
3	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	4 change	advmod
4	change	change	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 change	obj
6	at	at	ADP	_	7 all	case
7	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	4 change	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not change	present	German words	meaning		all			vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=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/language/38-words-that-changed-their-meaning/t10/