Part Of Speech (POS) tag annotation manual

This document provides an initial explanation of the POS tags used. In this project, we will be using the Penn Tagset.

If you have questions when tagging, please follow this procedure:

• check this page
• check the Original PennTag POS tagging guidelines .pdf
• check the ESL Tagging Guidelines .pdf (section 3) and/or section 5 in the shorter Berzak et al paper
• check the corpus using AntConc.
• If the corpus results are ambiguous (they sometimes are!), then bring up the issue in the Discord page or in our weekly meeting and we will address it.
• Please note transcription errors on the transcription errors sheet

POS tagging Scheme

Here, each tag is described and examples of each are also given.

Note that the following this style is used for examples.

Penn Tagset	Description	Example	Notes
CC	coordinating conjunction	and , but, yet
CD	cardinal number	1, two	Cardinal numbers (but not ordinal numbers such as “first”) are almost always tagged as CD. The Penn guidelines indicate that numbers can be tagged as JJ when that number is synonymous with an adjective (e.g., a 50-3 [wide/easy/handy] victory)or as an RB when the number is synonymous with an adverb (e.g., they won 50-3 [easily/handily]). These cases, however, are exceedingly rare. When in doubt, tag numbers as CD.
DT	determiner	the, a(n), no, every, another, any, that, these	both and all are DT when they occupy the determiner position as in all roads or both times (see PDT).
EX	existential there	there is
FW	foreign word	d'hoevre
IN	preposition	in, of, like	IN can be categorized as either ADP or SCONJ in UPOS.
IN	subordinating conjunction	although, when	IN can be categorized as either ADP or SCONJ in UPOS.
JJ	adjective	green
JJR	adjective, comparative	greener
JJS	adjective, superlative	greenest
LS	list marker	1) a) B)
MD	modal	could, will, may, would, shall, etc.
NN	noun, singular or mass	table
NNS	noun plural	tables
NNP	proper noun, singular	John, CNN,	Includes Acronyms (CNN, BBC, NATO, etc.)
NNPS	proper noun, plural	Vikings	Includes Acronyms (CNN, BBC, NATO, etc.)
PDT	predeterminer (i.e., determiner-like elements that precede an article or possessive pronouns)	both the boys , all his marbles, both the girls, half the time, such a good time, quite a mess, rather a nuisance	See DT carefully
POS	possessive ending	friend's , John's, the parents'
PRP	personal pronoun (includes reflexive)	I, he, it, mine, yours	Be careful not to confuse PRON (Pronouns) with PROPN (Proper nouns) in UPOS.
PRP$	possessive pronoun	my, his
RB	adverb (typically end with -ly, but also includes degree words)	however, usually, naturally, here, well, very, too	A negative particle “not” is an RB in penn tagset, but it should be tagged as PART in Universal POS.
RBR	adverb, comparative	better
RBS	adverb, superlative	best
RP	particle	give up	Verbal particles are categorized as ADP in UPOS, not PART.
SYM	Symbols (Mathematical or scientific)	π, ˚C
TO	to (all instances of “to”)	to go, to him	Note that in some cases, “to” is tagged as “IN” in the ONTONOTES corpus. This is incorrect because “to” should always be tagged as “TO”
UH	interjection	uhhuhhuhh
VB	verb, base form (subsumes imperatives, nfinitives, subjunctives)	take
VBD	verb, past tense	took	“D” represents “-ed”
VBG	verb, gerund/present participle	taking	“G” represents “-ing”
VBN	verb, past participle	taken	“N” represents “-en”
VBP	verb, present, non-3rd person sing.	You take, They take, I takeetc.	“P” represents “Present tense”
VBZ	verb, present, 3rd person sing.	takes	“Z” represents the morpheme “-z” in 3 person singular “s”
WDT	wh-determiner	which
WP	wh-pronoun	who, what, whom
WP$	possessive wh-pronoun	whose
WRB	wh-abverb	where, when,why
$	dollar sign	$
”	quotes	' "	If there is a quote mark at the end of a sentence that is not previously matched (e.g., This pizza is delicious.") then do not tag it (it will be cleaned from the data later).
(	Right Facing Bracket	(
(	Left Facing Bracket	(
,	comma	,
.	end sentence punctuation	. ! ?
:	colons, semi-colons, ellipses, and hyphens	: ; - ...

Dealing with L2 usage

Often, utterances will include “errors”. Following the procedures in Berzak et al. (2016), words will be tagged based on their realized form, and not on the intended one (with a few caveats). Guidelines for tagging such instances are provided below:

• Subject-verb (dis)agreement: In the sentence, A woman open her refrigerator, open should be tagged as VB (which represents the surface form), not VBZ or VBD (either of which could represent the presumptive intended utterance).
• Tense: Erroneous use of verb conjugations/tense are tagged based on the realized form. In the sentence Yesterday, I eat pizza, eat would be tagged as VBP.
• In cases where the form is ambiguous between VB another tag (e.g., VBP) AND the form doesn’t agree with the subject in any tense, use the VB tag (as in the first example above).
• Plural marking: Words should be tagged according to the realized form. In the sentence I ate one pizzas yesterday, pizza should be tagged as NNS
• Erroneous word form uses whose form cannot be assigned a Penn Tag get the closest reasonable tag. For example, adjectives with a plural marker (e.g., interestings) would get the normal JJ tag. This is also true for misspellings for which the realized form does not create an alternate word (e.g., dessk would be tagged as NN)

Some problematic tags

The following section will outline some frequent problematic cases. This is NOT exhaustive, and if you think your questions is not answered, refer to the following manual PennTag POS tagging guideline.

Adverb (RB) or Particle (RP)?

The Penn tagging guidelines provide a number of test that can be used to distinguish these three tags on pages 9, 10, 11, and 21). A very small set of these are included below:

Prepositions (IN) are directly associated with a noun phrase, while particles (RP) and adverbs (RB) are not.

• look at_IN the picture
• blaze out_IN into space

You cannot insert manner adverbs (e.g., calmly) between a verb and a particle.

• *to give calmly up (RP)

Hyphenated words

Hyphenated words with nouns as the root should be tagged as JJ NN such as T_JJ shirt_NN, according to the tagging guidelines (page 12). This is the case even if the unhyphenated version of the utterance should be tagged as NN NN. In the case of a transcribed corpus, this becomes arbitrary, but we will base our tags on how the utterance was transcribed.

Proper noun NNP or NN?

As per the Penn tagging guidelines, capitalized words should only be counted as proper nouns when clearly referring to a proper noun (e.g., March, New York Times). When this is unclear, tag nouns as common nouns.

Words such as “state” (as in Washington S/state) and “prefecture” should be counted as common nouns except when used as part of name (e.g., “State Department”, “Secretary of State”).

Some problematic words/phrases

“‘s”

's should be tagged as POS if used as a possessive and VBZ if used as a verb.

If 's is incorrectly as a plural, leave the tag blank and add it to the transcription errors sheet

“about” (RB, IN, or RP?)

• If “about means “approximately”, it should be tagged as RB (e.g., “It will take about one hour”)
• If “about” has an object (and does not mean “approximately”), then it should be tagged as IN (e.g., “talking about a species…”)
• In some other cases, “about” will be tagged as an RP. (e.g., “bring about change”). See “Adverb (RB) or Particle (RP)” section for more on this.

between

Between should be tagged as IN.

• “I often fly between_IN Denver and Eugene”

“both”, “either”, “all”, etc. (CC, DT, or PDT?)

If both, either is directly modifying a noun, they are determiner (DT).

• Both (DT) boys
• All (DT) girls
• The boys all (DT) left for school.

If they precede an article or possessive pronouns, they are predeterminer (PDT).

• Both (PDT) the boys
• All (PDT) the girls

If both or either are used with coordinating conjunctions, they are CC.

• Both (CC) X and Y.
• Either (CC) A or B ?? Both of the two.

“cell phone”

The guidelines are a bit unclear on how “cell phone” should be tagged. Based on the corpus, however, cell phone should always be tagged as cell_NN phone_NN.

everyday (JJ, NN, or RB?)

Everyday should be tagged as NN and not as RB following the Penn Guidelines on pages 18-19. If “everyday” directly modifies a noun, then it should be tagged as JJ. The utterance “every day” should be tagged as every_DT day_NN.

• I go there everyday_NN
• Those are my everday_JJ jeans.

“first” (JJ, RB or LS)

first (and other ordinal numbers) is most commonly tagged as an adjective JJ as in the first issue. When used to introduce a sentence, first is almost always tagged as RB as in First, the president was .... It can also be tagged as LS when used in a list (but this is rare and confined to short, focused lists).

“go out” (IN, RB, or RP)

Potential phrasal verbs are generally tagged inconsistently in the corpora between IN, RB, and RP.

In the construction go out, some of this inconsistency can be eliminated by the following guidelines. Note: These guidelines should not be extended to all phrasal verbs. In these guidelines, the RB is excluded for the sake of consistency. For other phrasal verbs, the RB tag should be considered.

If part of the sentence with the word out can be replaced with the word there, and the sentence retains the same meaning, then out is tagged as IN. In this context, out modifies a noun phrase.

• The ball went [out_IN of the park] . → The ball went [there] .

If replacing part of the sentence containing the word out with the word there either changes the meaning of the sentence, or makes an ungrammatical sentence, then out is tagged as RP. In this context, out is a particle of a phrasal verb.

• I went [out_RP with this girl from my class] . → I went [there] .
• I went [out_RP with my friends] . → I went [there] .
• The lights went [out_RP] . → The lights went [there] .

“have” (VB* or MD)

“have” has three uses, and all should be tagged with the appropriate VB* tag for its use (following the Penn guidelines, page 17 [19 in .pdf]):

• “have” as an auxiliary verb in “She has visited Thailand” gets VBZ and in “I have visited Thailand” gets VBP
• “have” as a modal auxiliary as in “He has to go to Thailand” gets VBZ and “They have to go to Thailand” gets VBP
• “have” as a lexical verb in “They had a nice car” gets VBD

Hyphenated word special mentions.

The following guidelines concern niche usage of hyphens. The goal of these guidelines is to make hyphen usage consistent in these niche situations.

In the word good - bye, both good and bye should be tagged as UH.

• Good_UH - bye_UH .

ordinal numbers (ex: first, second, third) which are preceded by a CD and a hyphen should be tagged as JJ.

• That was twenty_CD -_: sixth_JJ or twenty_CD -_: third_JJ .

If so-so is has a meaning akin to okay, then both so’s should be tagged as JJ.

• I 'm so_JJ - so_JJ .'

“like” (VB*, IN, or UH)

• If “like” is used as a verb, tag it as a verb.
• If “like” is used in a construction that could roughly be replaced with “such as”, then it gets a IN tag.
• In some cases, “like” will be used as an interjection (sometimes at the end of a sentence). In this case, it gets a UH tag. This is less common than the IN tag.

“little” (JJ or RB?)

• “little” should be tagged as JJ when it modifies a noun, as in “I only want a little bit”.
• This holds true even in the predicate: “That piece of fruit is little.” (This should be tagged as JJ)
• “little” should be tagged as RB when it directly modifies a verb, as in the sentence “They slept a little.” (Here, little is telling us how much they slept)

“much” (JJ or RB?)

• “much” should be tagged as JJ when explicitly modifying a noun or noun phrase (e.g., “they drank too much beer”)
• “much” should be tagged as RB if not explicitly modifying a noun or noun phrase (e.g., “they drank too much”)

“now” (RB or UH)

• “now” is usually tagged as RB, as in “now I know what to do” (now tells us when)
• “now” can also be used as an interjection UH as in the sentence “Now, I am not suggesting that…” (where “now” is acting as a filler)

“of course” (IN NN or RB RB?)

Following the WSJ texts and the ESL corpus, “of course” should be tagged as of_RB course_RB when used as an adverbial phrase as in “Of_RB course_RB, Washington had n’t…”

In fairly rare circumstances, “of course” can also be used as in preposition + noun constructions as in the phrase, “As a matter of_IN course_NN, we check the corpus”

“one” (CD or NN?)

Sometimes it is unclear whether one is cardinal number or a noun. In general, it should be tagged as a cardinal number (CD) even when it is not clearly that of a numeral

• one (CD) of the reasons
• the only one (NN) of its kind.

only (JJ or RB?)

only should be tagged as JJ if it directly modifies a noun or noun phrase. If it modifies a sentence (or a verb), it should be tagged as RB.

• “It was the only_JJ state in the midwest that…”
• “… trading moves typically last only_RB a few hours.”

“police” (NN or NNS?)

Some nouns like police have identical singular and plural forms. See NN vs NNS in the POS Tagging Manual for general rules in testing NN vs NNS. Below are some examples of tests.

In the construction call the police, if the word police can be replaced by the word them, it is tagged as NNS.

• And after that , you call the police_NNS , and tell whatever you are .

If police is a subject of a VBZ, then it is tagged as NN.

• and then police_NN comes_VBZ .

If police is part of a singular compound noun that can be replaced by a singular object pronoun like him, her, or it, then police is tagged as NN. The word there also works as a test for locations.

• And Taro explained the situation to the police_NN officer .
• But we tried to go to the police_NN office .

“so” (RB, CC, or IN?)

So is quite versatile and can therefore be difficult to tag. Note that so is not tagged consistently in the corpus.

So will often be used as an adverb (RB) as in “that pizza was so_RB good”

So can also be used as a coordinating (CC) or subordinating (IN) conjunction.

• If so connects two clauses and could be replaced by the word and it should be tagged as CC as in “I like pizza, so_CC I eat it weekly”
  • Note that the clause including so_CC cannot be moved to the beginning of an utterance “*So_CC I eat it weekly, I like pizza”
• If so connects two clauses and is followed by that or could be replaced with so that it is a subordinating conjunction (IN) as in “I eat pizza daily so_IN that I can get better at rock climbing”
  • Note that a clause that includes so_IN can be moved to the beginning of a sentence (which means that so_IN can occur at the beginning of a sentence!) as in “So_IN that I can get better at rock climbing, I eat pizza daily”

so is tagged as an adverb (RB) when it is the first part of a sentence.

• So_RB I think it 's good like'

“sort of” and “kind of”

sort of and kind of shoud be tagged as NN + IN in cases such as “They had some kind_NN of_IN tool”

However, when used as an adverbial, they should be tagged as RB + RB as in “They sort_RB of_RB ran away”,

“that”

that is tagged as DT in the following circumstances:

1) that is a determiner of a noun.

• I 'd like to finish reading that_DT book by one o'clock .

2) that is a subject, and could be replaced by “it”.

• That_DT was not too bad .

When that introduces a relative clause, it is tagged as WDT. A relative clause is a clause which modifies a noun. This means that is most commonly tagged as WDT when preceded by a noun.

• The man that_WDT works at the train station .

If the word that can be replaced by the word which, whom, or who, then it should be tagged as WDT.

• The doujou that_WDT we practice at , - which
• The man that_WDT works at the train station . - who/whom

that is sometimes tagged as RB when it can be replaced by the word very.

• It 's not that_RB good .
• I actually do n't remember that_RB much .

When that doesn’t meet the requirements to be tagged as DT, WDT, or RB, then it should be tagged as a subordinating conjunction IN.

• I just remembered that_IN I had a test today .
• He got angry at me that_IN his bike broke and his phone got broken .

Informal contractions like wanna

Ideally, informal contractions like wanna will be transcribed as 2 separate tokens. This way, they can be tagged separately.

• I wan_VBP na_TO catch my flight .
• I wann_VBP a_DT economy ticket .

Informal contractions being transcribed as a singular token is a transcription error. In this case, they should be tagged solely based off of the verb.

• I wanna_VBP catch my flight .
• I wanna_VBP economy ticket .

Other informal contractions include gotta and gonna.

• I 'm gon_VBG na_TO call them .
• Yesterday I got_VBD ta_TO go hospital .

“Yen” (NN or NNS)

Yen should be tagged as NNS as in “one million Yen_NNS”, unless it is explicitly used as NN as in “The value of the Yen_NN is increasing”