Test 3 · Words that changed their meaning

What would happen if you read an old poem where a knight is "silly" and you used today's meaning?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, knight, today · What happens: happen, read, be, use, mean · To what, where: old poem, meaning

This is test 3 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 happen	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	6 read	mark
5	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	6 read	nsubj
6	read	read	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
7	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 poem	det
8	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 poem	amod
9	poem	poem	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 read	obj
10	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	15 silly	advmod
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 knight	det
12	knight	knight	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 silly	nsubj
13	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 silly	cop
14	"	"	PUNCT	_	15 silly	punct
15	silly	silly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 poem	acl:relcl
16	"	"	PUNCT	_	15 silly	punct
17	and	and	CCONJ	_	19 used	cc
18	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	19 used	nsubj
19	used	use	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 read	conj
20	today	today	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 meaning	nmod:poss
21	's	's	PART	_	20 today	case
22	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 used	obj
23	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	happen	would				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	read a condition, not said to happen	present	you	a old poem		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent poem=Topic
3	is in a quote	present	a knight		silly property	tree rules
4	use	past	you	today's meaning		vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Patient
5	mean		today			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

Nothing, because "silly" has never changed meaning

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	9 changed	nsubj:pass
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 silly	punct
3	because	because	SCONJ	_	5 silly	mark
4	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 silly	punct
5	silly	silly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Nothing	appos
6	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 silly	punct
7	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 changed	aux
8	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	9 changed	advmod
9	changed	change	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
10	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 changed	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not change	present · perfect · passive		Nothing					tree rules

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

You'd understand the poem exactly as the poet meant it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	You	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	3 understand	nsubj
2	'd	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 understand	aux
3	understand	understand	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 poem	det
5	poem	poem	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 understand	obj
6	exactly	exactly	ADV	_	10 meant	advmod
7	as	as	SCONJ	_	10 meant	mark
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 poet	det
9	poet	poet	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 meant	nsubj
10	meant	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 understand	advcl
11	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 meant	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	understand	would	You	the poem					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer poem=Stimulus
2	mean	past	the poet	poem				exactly property	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic

Option 3

You'd find out the knight was a clown at the court

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	You	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	3 find	nsubj
2	'd	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 find	aux
3	find	find	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	out	out	ADP	_	3 find	compound:prt
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 knight	det
6	knight	knight	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 clown	nsubj
7	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 clown	cop
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 clown	det
9	clown	clown	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 find	ccomp
10	at	at	ADP	_	12 court	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 court	det
12	court	court	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 find	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	find out	would	You			the court			vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent
2	is a	past	the knight	a clown					tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

You'd wrongly think he was foolish instead of blessed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	You	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	4 think	nsubj
2	'd	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 think	aux
3	wrongly	wrongly	ADV	_	4 think	advmod
4	think	think	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 foolish	nsubj
6	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 foolish	cop
7	foolish	foolish	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 think	ccomp
8	instead	instead	ADV	ExtPos=ADP	10 blessed	case
9	of	of	ADP	_	8 instead	fixed
10	blessed	blessed	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 think	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	think speech: other	would	You					instead blessed; wrongly property	vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	is	past	he					foolish 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/38-words-that-changed-their-meaning/t3/