Tagsets: CLAWS 7

The CLAWS 7 tagset is used, for example, in the 2014 version of the British National Corpus (BNC 2014), and in the Corpus of Historical American English (COCA) and Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). However, the latter two corpora contain some modifications to and errors in the tagset, so please consult the page Tagsets: CLAWS 7 (COCA/COHA version).

Tag	Description
APPGE	possessive pronoun, pre-nominal (my, your, his, her, its, our, their)
AT	article (e.g. the, no)
AT1	singular article (e.g. a, an, every)
BCL	before-clause marker (e.g. in order (that), in order (to); see comment about "ditto tags" at the end of the list!)
CC	coordinating conjunction (e.g. and, or)
CCB	adversative coordinating conjunction (but)
CS	subordinating conjunction (e.g. if, because, unless, so, for)
CSA	as (when used as conjunction)
CSN	than (when used as a conjunction)
CST	that (when used as a conjunction)
CSW	whether (when used as a conjunction)
DA	after-determiner or post-determiner capable of pronominal function (e.g. such, former, same)
DA1	singular after-determiner (e.g. little, much)
DA2	plural after-determiner (e.g. few, several, many)
DAR	comparative after-determiner (e.g. more, less, fewer)
DAT	superlative after-determiner (e.g. most, least, fewest)
DB	before determiner or pre-determiner capable of pronominal function (all, half)
DB2	plural before-determiner (both)
DD	determiner (capable of pronominal function) (e.g any, some)
DD1	singular determiner (e.g. this, that, another)
DD2	plural determiner (these, those)
DDQ	wh-determiner (which, what)
DDQGE	wh-determiner, genitive (whose)
DDQV	wh-ever determiner (whichever, whatever)
EX	existential there
FO	formula
FU	unclassified word
FW	foreign word (e.g. de, la, aqua, chakra)
GE	germanic genitive marker - (' or's)
IF	for (when used as a preposition)
II	general preposition (all prepositions except for, of, with, without)
IO	of (when used as a preposition)
IW	with, without (when used as a prepositions)
JJ	general adjective (e.g. good, nice, lovely, different)
JJR	general comparative adjective (e.g. better, nicer)
JJT	general superlative adjective (e.g. best, nicest)
JK	catenative adjective (able in be able to, willing in be willing to)
MC	cardinal number, neutral for number (two, three, sixteen, …)
MC1	singular cardinal number (one)
MC2	plural cardinal number (e.g. sixes, sevens, twenties)
MCGE	genitive cardinal number, neutral for number (two's, 100's)
MCMC	hyphenated number (5-10, 1914-1918)
MD	ordinal number (e.g. first, second, next, last)
MF	fraction, neutral for number (e.g. quarters, two-thirds)
ND1	singular noun of direction (e.g. north, southwest)
NN	common noun, neutral for number (e.g. people, staff, tuna, aircraft, series, ethics)
NN1	singular common noun (e.g. horse, girl, love, democracy)
NN2	plural common noun (e.g. horses, girls, democracies)
NNA	following noun of title (e.g. M.A.)
NNB	preceding noun of title (e.g. Mrs., Prof.)
NNL1	singular locative noun (e.g. Lake, Street, Hill)
NNL2	plural locative noun (e.g. Lakes, Streets, Hills)
NNO	numeral noun, neutral for number (e.g. dozen, hundred)
NNO2	numeral noun, plural (e.g. hundreds, thousands)
NNT1	temporal noun, singular (e.g. day, week, year)
NNT2	temporal noun, plural (e.g. days, weeks, years)
NNU	unit of measurement, neutral for number (e.g. mm, sec)
NNU1	singular unit of measurement (e.g. millimetre, second)
NNU2	plural unit of measurement (e.g. ins., feet)
NP	proper noun, neutral for number (e.g. Philippines, Mercedes)
NP1	singular proper noun (e.g. Europe, BBC, Sarah)
NP2	plural proper noun (e.g. Himalayas, Beatles, Tudors)
NPD1	singular weekday noun (e.g. Friday)
NPD2	plural weekday noun (e.g. Fridays)
NPM1	singular month noun (e.g. September)
NPM2	plural month noun (e.g. Septembers)
PN	indefinite pronoun, neutral for number (none)
PN1	indefinite pronoun, singular (e.g. anyone, everything, nobody, one)
PNQO	objective wh-pronoun (whom)
PNQS	subjective wh-pronoun (who)
PNQV	wh-ever pronoun (whoever)
PNX1	reflexive indefinite pronoun (oneself)
PPGE	nominal possessive personal pronoun (e.g. mine, yours)
PPH1	3rd person sing. neuter personal pronoun (it)
PPHO1	3rd person sing. objective personal pronoun (him, her)
PPHO2	3rd person plural objective personal pronoun (them)
PPHS1	3rd person sing. subjective personal pronoun (he, she)
PPHS2	3rd person plural subjective personal pronoun (they)
PPIO1	1st person sing. objective personal pronoun (me)
PPIO2	1st person plural objective personal pronoun (us)
PPIS1	1st person sing. subjective personal pronoun (I)
PPIS2	1st person plural subjective personal pronoun (we)
PPX1	singular reflexive personal pronoun (e.g. yourself, itself)
PPX2	plural reflexive personal pronoun (e.g. yourselves, themselves)
PPY	2nd person personal pronoun (you)
RA	adverb, after nominal head (e.g. ago, am, pm)
REX	adverb introducing appositional constructions (namely, i.e.)
RG	degree adverb (very, so, too)
RGQ	wh- degree adverb (how)
RGQV	wh-ever degree adverb (however)
RGR	comparative degree adverb (more, less)
RGT	superlative degree adverb (most, least)
RL	locative adverb (e.g. somewhere, forward, upstairs)
RP	prep. adverb, particle (e.g up, out, back)
RPK	prep. adv., catenative (e.g. about in be about to)
RR	general adverb (e.g. just, actually, always)
RRQ	wh- general adverb (where, when, why, how)
RRQV	wh-ever general adverb (wherever, whenever)
RRR	comparative general adverb (e.g. more, better, earlier)
RRT	superlative general adverb (e.g. most, best, earliest)
RT	quasi-nominal adverb of time (e.g. now, tomorrow)
TO	infinitive marker (to)
UH	interjection (e.g. oh, yes, um)
VB0	be, base form (finite i.e. imperative, subjunctive)
VBDR	were
VBDZ	was
VBG	being
VBI	be, infinitive (e.g. in I'll be wrapped around your finger, to be honest)
VBM	am
VBN	been
VBR	are
VBZ	is
VD0	do, base form (finite)
VDD	did
VDG	doing
VDI	do, infinitive (e.g. in I could do…, To do…)
VDN	done
VDZ	does
VH0	have, base form (finite)
VHD	had (past tense)
VHG	having
VHI	have, infinitive
VHN	had (past participle)
VHZ	has
VM	modal auxiliary (can, will, would, etc.)
VMK	modal catenative (ought, used)
VV0	base form of lexical verb (e.g. say, love)
VVD	past tense of lexical verb (e.g. said, loved)
VVG	-ing participle of lexical verb (e.g. saying, loving)
VVGK	-ing participle catenative (going in be going to)
VVI	infinitive (e.g. to say…, I will always love you…)
VVN	past participle of lexical verb (e.g. given, worked)
VVNK	past participle catenative (e.g. bound in be bound to)
VVZ	-s form of lexical verb (e.g. says, loves)
XX	not, n't
ZZ1	singular letter of the alphabet (e.g. A, b)
ZZ2	plural letter of the alphabet (e.g. A's, b's)
!	punctuation tag - exclamation mark
"	punctuation tag - quotation marks
(	punctuation tag - left bracket
)	punctuation tag - right bracket
,	punctuation tag - comma
-	punctuation tag - dash
.	punctuation tag - full-stop
…	punctuation tag - ellipsis
:	punctuation tag - colon
;	punctuation tag - semi-colon
?	punctuation tag - question-mark

Ditto Tags

The CLAWS 7 tagset uses so-called “ditto” tags for certain sequences of tokens that are analyzed as belonging to a single lexical unit. For example, in terms of is analyzed as a preposition (in CLAWS 5, by comparison, it is analyzed as a sequence of a preposition, a noun and another preposition).

In such cases, all words are given the same tag (in the case of in terms of the tag IN for preposition) followed by two digits: the first one specifying the length of the sequence, the second one specifying the position of the element in the sequence, for example

in/II31 terms/II32 of/II33
at_RR21 length_RR22 |
a_DD21 lot_DD22

This is unfortunate, as it forces analytical decisions on us that are not at all uncontroversial, but we have to live with it!

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