This is part of archived UD v1 documentation. See http://universaldependencies.org/ for the current version.
home issue tracker

These pages draw from Section 2 of Stanford typed dependencies manual (de Marneffe and Manning 2008), but have been updated for UD.

Note: nmod, neg and punct appear in two places.

Core dependents of clausal predicates
Nominal dep Predicate dep
nsubj csubj
nsubjpass csubjpass
dobj ccomp xcomp
iobj
Non-core dependents of clausal predicates
Nominal dep Predicate dep Modifier word
  advcl advmod
nmod   neg
nmod:npmod
nmod:tmod
nmod:poss
Special clausal dependents
Nominal dep Auxiliary Other
vocative aux mark
discourse auxpass punct
expl cop
Noun dependents
Nominal dep Predicate dep Modifier word
nummod acl amod
  acl:relcl
appos   det
    det:predet
nmod   neg
Compounding and unanalyzed
compound mwe goeswith
compound:prt
name foreign
Coordination
conj cc punct
  cc:preconj
Case-marking, prepositions, possessive
case
Loose joining relations
list parataxis remnant
dislocated reparandum
Other
Sentence head Unspecified dependency
root dep

acl: clausal modifier of noun

acl is used for finite and non-finite clauses that modify a noun. Note that in English relative clauses get assigned a specific relation acl:relcl, a subtype of acl.

the issues as he sees them
acl(issues, sees)
Points to establish are ...
acl(Points, establish)
I don't have anything to say to you
acl(anything, say)

Non-relative clause finite clausal complements for nouns are limited to complement clauses with a subset of nouns like fact or report. We analyze them as acl (parallel to the analysis of this class as “content clauses” in Huddleston and Pullum 2002). Such clausal complements are usually finite (though there are occasional remnant English subjunctives).

I admire the fact that you are honest 
acl(fact, honest) 
mark(honest, that) 
cop(honest, are) 
nsubj(honest, you) 

edit acl

acl:relcl: relative clause modifier

A relative clause modifier of an noun is a relative clause modifying the noun. The relation points from the noun that is modified to the head of the relative clause. Relative clauses are finite.

I saw the man you love
acl:relcl(man, love)
I saw the book which you bought
acl:relcl(book, bought)

edit acl:relcl

advcl: adverbial clause modifier

An adverbial clause modifier is a clause which modifies a verb or other predicate (adjective, etc.), as a modifier not as a core complement. This includes things such as a temporal clause, consequence, conditional clause, purpose clause, etc. The dependent must be clausal (or else it is an advmod) and the dependent is the main predicate of the clause.

The accident happened as the night was falling
advcl(happened, falling)
If you know who did it , you should tell the teacher
advcl(tell, know)
He talked to him in order to secure the account
advcl(talked, secure)
He was upset when I talked to him
advcl(upset, talked)
They heard about you missing classes.
advcl(heard, missing)

edit advcl

advmod: adverbial modifier

An adverbial modifier of a word is a (non-clausal) adverb or adverbial phrase (ADVP) that serves to modify the meaning of the word.

Genetically modified food
advmod(modified, Genetically)
less often
advmod(often, less)

edit advmod

amod: adjectival modifier

An adjectival modifier of a nominal is any adjective or adjectival phrase that serves to modify the meaning of the nominal. This includes always or sometimes postposed modifiers, such as else and nice in the examples below.

Sam eats red meat
amod(meat, red)
Sam took out  a 3 million dollar loan
amod(loan, dollar)
Sam took out  a $ 3 million loan
amod(loan, $)
Anything else for me ?
amod(Anything, else)
We can go somewhere nice .
amod(somewhere, nice)

edit amod

appos: appositional modifier

An appositional modifier of an NP is an NP immediately to the right of the first NP that serves to define or modify that NP. It includes parenthesized examples, as well as defining abbreviations in one of these structures.

Sam , my brother , arrived
appos(Sam-1, brother-4)
Bill ( John 's cousin )
appos(Bill-1, cousin-5)
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation ( ABC )
appos(Corporation-4, ABC-6)

edit appos

aux: auxiliary

An auxiliary of a clause is a non-main verb of the clause, e.g., a modal auxiliary, or a form of be, do or have in a periphrastic tense.

(Contrary to the older SD and arguments of Pullum (1982) and following, infinitive to is not analyzed as an auxiliary. Instead, it is analyzed as a mark.)

Reagan has died
aux(died-3, has-2)
He should leave
aux(leave-3, should-2)

edit aux

auxpass: passive auxiliary

A passive auxiliary of a clause is a non-main verb of the clause which contains the passive information.

Kennedy has been killed
auxpass(killed, been)
Kennedy was killed
auxpass(killed, was)
Kennedy got killed
auxpass(killed, got)

edit auxpass

case: case marking

The case relation is used for any preposition in English. Prepositions are treated as dependents of the noun they attach to or introduce in an “extended nominal projection”. Thus, contrary to SD, UD abandons treating a preposition as a mediator between a modified word and its object. The case relation aims at providing a uniform analysis of prepositions and case in morphologically rich languages. In English, subordinating conjunctions introducing clauses are often in the form of prepositions. However, they are given a different dependency: The relation mark is used for markers in an “extended clausal projection”.

The case relation is also used for the possessive clitic ‘s in English, which we separate from what it modifies, because it acts as a phrasal clitic, as shown in the last example.

I saw a cat in a hat
case(hat, in)
I saw a cat with a telescope
case(telescope, with)
He is responsible for meals
case(meals, for)
The school 's grounds
case(school, 's)
The head of school 's speech
case(head, 's)
case(school, of)
nmod(speech, head)

edit case

cc: coordination

A coordination is the relation between an element of a conjunct and the coordinating conjunction word of the conjunct. (Note: different dependency grammars have different treatments of coordination. We take one conjunct of a conjunction (normally the first) as the head of the conjunction.) A conjunction may also appear at the beginning of a sentence. This is also called a cc, and dependent on the root predicate of the sentence.

And then we left .
cc(left, And)

See also: conj

edit cc

cc:preconj: preconjunct

A preconjunct is the relation between the head of an NP and a word that appears at the beginning bracketing a conjunction (and puts emphasis on it), such as either, both, neither).

Both the boys and the girls are here
cc:preconj(boys, Both)

edit cc:preconj

ccomp: clausal complement

A clausal complement of a verb or adjective is a dependent clause with an internal subject which functions like an object of the verb or adjective.

He says that you like to swim
ccomp(says, like)
mark(like, that)
He says you like to swim
ccomp(says, like)
I am certain that he did it 
ccomp(certain, did) 
mark(did, that) 
The boss said to start digging
ccomp(said, start)
mark(start, to)

See this page for additional explanation and examples.

edit ccomp

compound: compound

compound is used for:

phone book
compound(book, phone)
oil price futures
compound(price, oil)
compound(futures, price)

This includes proper names that use regular syntactic relations—contrast with name:

Wall Street
compound(Street, Wall)
Natural Resources Conservation Service
amod(Resources-2, Natural-1)
compound(Conservation-3, Resources-2)
compound(Service-4, Conservation-3)
I have four thousand sheep
compound(thousand, four)
I lost $ 3.2 billion
compound(billion, 3.2)
a medium - large company
amod (company, large)
compound(large, medium)
punct(large, -)
a self - driven research strategy
compound(strategy, research)
amod(strategy, driven)
compound(driven, self)
punct(driven, -)
Does he go oink oink ?
compound(oink-5, oink-4)
She just made up the answer .
compound:prt(made, up)

edit compound

compound:prt: phrasal verb particle

The phrasal verb particle relation identifies an idiomatic phrasal verb, and holds between the verb and its particle (tagged as ADP). It is a subtype of the compound relation.

They shut down the station
compound:prt(shut, down)
They shut the station down
compound:prt(shut, down)

This relation excludes literal/directional uses of prepositions/particles, such as up, down, in, out, etc. These would typically become an ADV with the relation advmod:

The dentist pulled out the tooth
advmod(pulled, out)
The dentist pulled the tooth out
advmod(pulled, out)

edit compound:prt

conj: conjunct

A conjunct is the relation between two elements connected by a coordinating conjunction, such as and, or, etc. We treat conjunctions asymmetrically: The head of the relation is the first conjunct and other conjunctions depend on it via the conj relation.

Bill is big and honest
conj(big, honest)

See also: cc

edit conj

cop: copula

A copula is the relation between the complement of a copular verb and the copular verb. Copular heads are avoided when possible.

Bill is an honest man
cop(man, is)
nsubj(man, Bill)
amod(man, honest)
det(man, an)

Prepositional phrases are annotated similarly, the only difference being that the nominal predicate has an additional case marker.

Bill is from California
case(California, from)
cop(California, is)
nsubj(California, Bill)

When an adjective or adverb is being predicated of a nominal phrase, the adjective/adverb is the root, the nominal phrase is the nsubj, and the copula is the cop.

Bill is honest
nsubj(honest, Bill)
cop(honest, is)
It was yesterday
nsubj(yesterday, It)
cop(yesterday, was)

Prepositions may also project a cop dependent.

The light is on
cop(on, is)
nsubj(on, light)
det(light, The)

In predicative wh-constructions, the fronted wh-word is the head, and the copula is another cop.

What is that ?
cop(What, is)
nsubj(What, that)

However, whenever the copula has a clausal argument/adjunct, the copula becomes the root, so the cop relation is not used.

It was because Bill is honest
nsubj(was, It)
mark(honest, because)
ccomp(was, honest)
nsubj(honest, Bill)
cop(honest, is)
My question is : was that really true ?
nsubj(is, question)
ccomp(is, true)
cop(true, was)
nsubj(true, that)
advmod(true, really)
This is to inform you of our decision
nsubj(is, This)
advcl(is, inform)
aux(inform, to)
dobj(inform, you)
nmod(inform, decision)
case(decision, of)
poss(decision, our)

Predicative “be” is the only verb recognized as a copula; other copula-like verbs,such as “become”, “get”, and “seem”, are treated as regular raising verbs, and thus take xcomp arguments. Non-predicative uses of “be”–e.g., “be” when used in periphrastic verbal constructions, presentationals, or existentials–is annotated as an aux instead. of a cop.

Bill got rich
nsubj(got, Bill)
xcomp(got, rich)
Bill is speaking
nsubj(speaking, Bill)
aux(speaking, is)
Here are some bags
advmod(are, Here)
nsubj(are, bags)
det(bags, some)
There 's a cow in the field
expl('s, There)
nsubj('s, cow)
det(cow, a)
nmod('s, field)
det(field, the)
case(field, in)

edit cop

csubj: clausal subject

A clausal subject is a clausal syntactic subject of a clause, i.e., the subject is itself a clause. The governor of this relation might not always be a verb: when the verb is a copular verb, the root of the clause is the complement of the copular verb. In the two following examples, what she said is the subject.

What she said makes sense
csubj(makes, said)

edit csubj

csubjpass: clausal passive subject

A clausal passive subject is a clausal syntactic subject of a passive clause. In the example below, that she lied is the subject.

That she lied was suspected by everyone
csubjpass(suspected, lied)

edit csubjpass

dep: dependent

A dependency is labeled as dep when a system is unable to determine a more precise dependency relation between two words. This may be because of a weird grammatical construction, a limitation in the Stanford Dependency conversion software, a parser error, or because of an unresolved long distance dependency.

Then , as if to show that he could , ...
dep(show, if)

edit dep

det: determiner

A determiner is the relation between the head of an NP and its determiner.

The man is here
det(man, The)
Which book do you prefer ?
det(book, Which)
You 've all won !
nsubj(won, You)
det(You, all)
aux(won, 've)

edit det

det:predet: predeterminer

A predeterminer is the relation between the head of an NP and a word that precedes and modifies the meaning of the NP determiner.

All the boys are here
det:predet(boys, All)

edit det:predet

discourse: discourse element

This is used for interjections and other discourse particles and elements (which are not clearly linked to the structure of the sentence, except in an expressive way). We generally follow the guidelines of what the Penn Treebanks count as an INTJ. They define this to include: interjections (oh, uh-huh, Welcome), fillers (um, ah), and discourse markers (well, like, actually, but not you know).

Iguazu is in Argentina :)
discourse(is-2, :)-5)

edit discourse

dislocated: dislocated elements

The dislocated relation is used for fronted or postposed elements that do not fulfill the usual core grammatical relations of a sentence. Dislocated elements are attached to the same governor as the dependent that they double for.

This is our office , me and Sam
dislocated(office, me)
cc(me, and)
conj(me, Sam)
The Mezza Luna : you should try it .
det(Luna-3, The-1)
compound(Luna-3, Mezza-2)
dislocated(it-8, Luna-3)
nsubj(try-7, you-5)
aux(try-7, should-6)
root(root-0, try-7)
dobj(try-7, it-8)

edit dislocated

dobj: direct object

The direct object of a VP is the noun phrase which is the (accusative) object of the verb.

She gave me a raise
dobj(gave, raise)

edit dobj

expl: expletive

This relation captures an existential there or it in extraposition constructions. There is further discussion and examples on the universal dependency page (u-dep/expl).

There is a ghost in the room
expl(is, There)

edit expl

foreign: foreign words

We use foreign to label sequences of foreign words. These are given a linear analysis: the head is the first token in the foreign phrase.

I guess that c' est la vie
nsubj(guess-2, I-1)
ccomp(guess-2, c'-4)
mark(c'-4, that-3)
foreign(c'-4, est-5)
foreign(c'-4, la-6)
foreign(c'-4, vie-7)

edit foreign

goeswith: goes with

This relation links two parts of a word that are separated in text that is not well edited. We follow the treebank: The GW part is the dependent and the head is in some sense the main part, often the second part.

They come here with out legal permission
goeswith(out-5, with-4)

edit goeswith

iobj: indirect object

The indirect object of a (verbal) predicate is the nominal which is the dative object of the verb. The relation iobj is used for objects that are not direct objects. It occurs only when there is a dobj or ccomp in the clause.

She gave me a raise
iobj(gave, me)

Note that prepositional phrases are not considered core arguments in English, hence in she gave it to me, the to me part is attached as nmod although semantically it corresponds to the dative.

edit iobj

list: list

The list relation is used for chains of comparable items. Web text often contains passages which are meant to be interpreted as lists but are parsed as single sentences. Email signatures in particular contain these structures, in the form of contact information: the different contact information items are labeled as list; the key-value pair relations are labeled as appos.

In lists with more than two items, all items of the list shoud modify the first one.

Steve Jones Phone: 555-9814 Email: jones@abc.edf
name(Steve-1, Jones-2)
list(Steve-1, Phone:-3)
list(Steve-1, Email:-5)
appos(Phone:-3, 555-9814-4)
appos(Email:-5, jones@abc.edf-6)

In an itemized or numbered list, we have been taking the item marker as a dependent of the head of the contentful list item. This appears to be better than the alternative.

edit list

mark: marker

A marker is the word introducing a clause subordinate to another clause. For a complement clause, this will typically be that or whether. For an adverbial clause, the marker is typically a preposition like before or a subordinating conjunction fulfilling a similar role like while or although. The mark is a dependent of the subordinate clause head.

Forces engaged in fighting after insurgents attacked
mark(attacked, after)
He says that you like to swim
mark(swim, that)

The infinitive marker to is analyzed as a mark.

I tried to finish it
mark(finish, to)

When a a noun or a verb takes a prepositionally marked non-core argument (modifier) and that modifier is a clause, then we also label that prepositon as mark (as it would not seem reasonable to call it case when it is marking a clause). The result will commonly be a doubly marked clause.

We have no useful information on whether users are at risk .
nsubj(have, We)
neg(information, no)
amod(information, useful)
dobj(have, information)
mark(risk, on)
mark(risk, whether)
nsubj(risk, users)
cop(risk, are)
case(risk, at)
acl(information, risk)
punct(have, .)

edit mark

mwe: multi-word expression

The multi-word expression (modifier) relation is used for certain fixed grammaticized expressions with function words that behave like a single function word. Multiword expressions are annotated in a flat, head-initial structure, in which all words in the expression modify the first one using the mwe label.

At present, this relation is used inside the following expressions:

as well

I like dogs as well
advmod(like, as)
mwe(as, well)

as well as

I like dogs as well as cats
mwe(as-4, well)
mwe(as-4, as-6)
cc(dogs, as-4)

such as

I like fluffy animals , such as dogs
case(dogs, such)
mwe(such, as)

due to (and other forms, such as d t and d/t)

He cried due to the fact that you hurt him
case(fact, due)
mwe(due, to)

because of (and other forms, such as b c of and b/c of)

He cried because of you
case(you, because)
mwe(because, of)

instead of

John went instead of Mary
mwe(instead, of)
case(Mary, instead)
John left early instead of staying for the whole thing
mwe(instead, of)
mark(staying, instead)

in case

I always back up my files in case my computer crashes
mwe(in, case)
mark(crashes, in)
I always back up my files just in case
mwe(in, case)
advmod(back, in)
advmod(in, just)

in case of

I always back up my files in case of a crash
mwe(in, case)
mwe(in, of)
case(crash, in)

of course

I like dogs , of course
advmod(like, of)
mwe(of, course)

so that

He cried so that you would feel bad
mark(feel, so)
mwe(so, that)

more than (when used synonymously with “over” in a quantity)

More than 90 percent
advmod(percent, More)
mwe(More, than)

less than (when used synonymously with “under” in a quantity)

Less than ten percent
advmod(percent, Less)
mwe(Less, than)

up to (when used in quantities)

Up to fifty percent
mwe(Up, to)
advmod(percent, Up)

according to

According to John
mwe(According, to)
case(John, According)

in order

He cried in order to make you feel bad
mark(feel, in)
mwe(in, order)
He cried in order that you might feel bad
mark(feel, in)
mwe(in, order)
He cried in order for you to have something to feel bad about
mark(have, in)
mwe(in, order)

rather than

I decided to get a dog rather than a cat
mwe(rather, than)
cc(rather, dog)

at least (when not used for quantities)

At least I like dogs
mwe(At, least)
advmod(like, At)

as if

It was as if he cried to make you feel bad
mwe(as, if)
mark(cried, as)

prior to

John left prior to the meeting
mwe(prior, to)
case(meeting, prior)

as to

As to whether I love dogs ...
mwe(As, to)
mark(love, As)
As to my love of dogs ...
mwe(As, to)
case(love, As)

kind of

I kind of like dogs
mwe(kind, of)
advmod(like, kind)

whether or not

He 's crying whether or not you feel bad about it
mwe(whether, or)
mwe(whether, not)
mark(feel, whether)

not to mention

This restaurant is pretty cheap with good food, not to mention their friendly staff
mwe(not, to)
mwe(not, mention)
cc(cheap, not)
conj(staff, cheap)

as opposed to

John decided to leave early , as opposed to Mary
mwe(as, opposed)
mwe(as, to-9)
case(Mary, as)

let alone

He could n't handle being hurt , let alone hurt by you
mwe(let, alone)
cc(hurt-6, alone)
conj(hurt-6, hurt-10)

so as to

John left early so as to miss the meeting
mwe(so, as)
mwe(so, to)
mark(so, miss)

in between

John left in between meetings
mwe(in, between)
case(in, meetings)

all but

John has all but left
mwe(all, but)
advmod(all, left)

that is

The dogs need to be housebroken -- that is , '' potty - trained ''
mwe(that, is)
advmod(trained, that)

how come

How come John left early ?
mwe(How, come)
mark(left, How)

had better (and ‘d better)

You had better apologize
mwe(had, better)
aux(had, apologize)

Not mwes

The following are not annotated as mwes, but are instead labeled according to their apparent internal structure.

out of, off of (All double prepositions denoting spatial relations are annotated with two cases on the nominal)

Get out of there !
nmod(Get, there)
case(there, out)
case(there, of)
Get off of that !
nmod(Get, that)
case(that, off)
case(that, of)

by far

Dogs are the best animal by far
nmod(animal, far)
case(far, by)

what about

What about John ?
nmod(What, John)
case(John, about)

at all

I don't like her at all
nmod(like, all)
case(all, at)

at most, at least (when used for quantities. To determine whether at least should be an mwe or not in borderline cases, substitute it with at most; if the sentence remains grammatical, it should receive its surface analysis)

at most 50 percent
nmod:npmod(percent, most)
case(most, at)
at least 50 percent
nmod:npmod(percent, least)
case(least, at)

at best, at worst

At best , they were guesses
nmod:npmod(guesses, best)
case(best, At)
At worst , they were lies
nmod:npmod(lies, worst)
case(worst, At)

what if

What if John left early ?
advcl(What, left)
mark(left, if)

so long

So long , Ham 's ... you will be missed
advmod(long, So)
vocative(long, Ham)
parataxis(long, missed)

edit mwe

name: name

name is one of the three relations for compounding in UD (together with compound and mwe). It is used for proper nouns constituted of multiple nominal elements. For example, name would be used between the words of Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York, or Carl XVI Gustaf but not to replace the usual relations in a phrasal or clausal name like The king of Sweden or the novels The Lord of the Rings and Captured By Aliens. Words joined by name should all be part of a minimal noun phrase; otherwise regular syntactic relations should be used. This is basically similar to the treatment of noun compounds with compound, except that in many cases parts of the name may be another nominal element such as an adjective (United Airlines).

In general, names are annotated in a flat, head-initial structure, in which all words in the name modify the first one using the name label.

Carl XVI Gustaf
name(Carl-1, Gustaf-3)
name(Carl-1, XVI-2)

For organization names with clear syntactic modification structure, the dependencies should reflect the syntactic modification structure using regular syntactic relation, as in:.

Natural Resources Conservation Service
amod(Resources-2, Natural-1)
compound(Conservation-3, Resources-2)
compound(Service-4, Conservation-3)

In addition, regular syntactic relations are used: (i) for a modifying English determiner or (ii) to connect together the words of a description or name which involve English embedded prepositional phrases, sentences, etc.

The king of Sweden
det(king-2, The-1)
nmod(king-2, Sweden-4)
case(Sweden-4, of-3)

If a name contains a function word in another language than English, we also use the name relation.

Río de la Plata
name(Río-1, de-2)
name(Río-1, la-3)
name(Río-1, Plata-4)
Ludwig van Beethoven
name(Ludwig, van)
name(Ludwig, Beethoven)

Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra
name(Miguel, de)
name(Miguel, Cervantes)
name(Miguel, y)
name(Miguel, Saavedra)
San Francisco
name(San, Francisco)

edit name

neg: negation modifier

The negation modifier is the relation between a negation word and the word it modifies. It is used both for predicate negation (canonically, not) and nominal negation (canonically no). Dependents labeled neg in the current treebank are the following (in various lowercase/uppercase forms): n, n’t, neither, never, no, non, not, nt, t.

Bill is not a scientist
neg(scientist, not)
Bill does n't drive
neg(drive, n't)
John saw no accidents
neg(accidents, no)

edit neg

nmod: nominal modifier

The nmod relation is used for nominal modifiers of nouns or clausal predicates. nmod is a noun functioning as a non-core (oblique) argument or adjunct. In English, nmod is used

the office of the Chair
det(office-2, the-1)
nmod(office-2, Chair-5)
case(Chair-5, of-3)
det(Chair-5, the-4)
give the toys to the children
dobj(give, toys)
nmod(give, children)
case(children, to)
some of the toys
nmod(some, toys)
case(toys, of)
det(toys, the)

The nmod relation holds between the noun/predicate modified by the prepositional complement and the noun introduced by the preposition.

the Chair 's office
det(Chair-2, the-1)
nmod(office-4, Chair-2)
case(Chair-2, 's-3)

Nominal modifiers not marked by a preposition or ‘s genitive are tagged nmod:npmod, a subtype of nmod. Temporal nominal modifiers are also marked with a separate relation nmod:tmod. See the definitions of these relations.

edit nmod

nmod:npmod: noun phrase as adverbial modifier

This relation is a subtype of the nmod relation, which captures the following cases where something syntactically a noun phrase is used as an adverbial modifier in a sentence:

(i) a measure phrase, which is the relation between the head of an adjectival/adverbial or prepositional phrase and the head of a measure phrase modifying it:

The director is 65 years old
nmod:npmod(old, years)
6 feet long
nmod:npmod(long, feet)

(ii) noun phrases giving an extent to a verb, which are not objects:

Shares eased a fraction
nmod:npmod(eased, fraction)

(iii) financial constructions involving an adverbial, notably the following construction $5 a share, where the second nominal means “per share”:

IBM earned $ 5 a share
nmod:npmod($, share)

(iv) floating reflexives

The silence is itself significant
nmod:npmod(significant, itself)

and (v) certain other absolutive nominal constructions.

A temporal modifier nmod:tmod is a subclass of npmod which is distinguished as a separate relation.

edit nmod:npmod

nmod:poss: possessive nominal modifier

nmod:poss is used for a nominal modifier which occurs before its head in the specifier position used for ‘s possessives. It is marked with the case ‘s or one of its variant forms. This relation isn’t used for other pre-head modifiers such as noun compounds or quotative phrases.

Marie 's book
nmod:poss(book, Marie)
case(Marie, 's)

edit nmod:poss

nmod:tmod: temporal modifier

A temporal modifier is a subtype of the nmod relation: if the modifier is specifying a time, it is labeled as tmod.

Last night , I swam in the pool
nmod:tmod(swam, night)
You need to turn in your homework by next week
nmod:tmod(turn, week)

edit nmod:tmod

nsubj: nominal subject

A nominal subject (nsubj) is a nominal which is the syntactic subject and the proto-agent of a clause. That is, it is in the position that passes typical grammatical test for subjecthood, and this argument is the more agentive, the do-er, or the proto-agent of the clause. (See csubj for when the subject is clausal. See nsubjpass and csubjpass for when the subject is not the proto-agent argument due to valence changing operations.) This nominal may be headed by a noun, or it may be a pronoun or relative pronoun, or in ellipsis contexts, other things such as an adjective.

The nsubj role is only applied to semantic arguments of a predicate. When there is an empty argument in a grammatical subject position (sometimes called a pleonastic or expletive), it is labeled as expl. If there is then a displaced subject in the clause, as in the English existential there construction, it will be labeled as nsubj. The governor of the nsubj relation might not always be a verb: when the verb is a copular verb, the root of the clause is the complement of the copular verb, which can be an adjective or noun, including a noun marked by a preposition, as in the examples below.

In English, the nsubj normally precedes the predicate that it depends on, but this need not be the case, both for the displaced subjects of expletive constructions and in other cases of stylistic inversion, such as the example headed by the predicate come below.

Clinton defeated Dole
nsubj(defeated, Clinton)
The car is red .
nsubj(red, car)
Sue is a true patriot .
nsubj(patriot, Sue)
We are in the barn .
nsubj(barn, We)
Agatha is in trouble .
nsubj(trouble, Agatha)
There is a ghost in the room .
expl(is, There)
nsubj(is, ghost)
These links present the many viewpoints that existed .
acl:relcl(viewpoints, existed)
nsubj(existed, that)
From China comes news of a new super-small mobile phone .
nsubj(comes, news)

edit nsubj

nsubjpass: passive nominal subject

A passive nominal subject is a noun phrase which is the syntactic subject of a passive clause.

Dole was defeated by Clinton
nsubjpass(defeated, Dole)

edit nsubjpass

nummod: numeric modifier

A numeric modifier of a noun is any number phrase that serves to modify the meaning of the noun with a quantity.

Sam ate 3 sheep
nummod(sheep, 3)
Sam spent forty dollars
nummod(dollars, forty)
Sam spent $ 40
nummod($, 40)

edit nummod

parataxis: parataxis

The parataxis relation (from Greek for “place side by side”) is a relation between the main verb of a clause and other sentential elements, such as a sentential parenthetical, a clause after a “:” or a “;”, or two sentences placed side by side without any explicit coordination or subordination.

Let 's face it we 're annoyed
parataxis(Let, annoyed)

When multiple parataxes are present in a single sentence, they get a flat structure, not a hierarchical one, even if they form a temporal sequence.

ROOT I 'm not kidding , I once lost a hamster in my house , three months later I walk down in the basement and it was as big as a rat .
root(ROOT, kidding)
parataxis(lost, kidding)
parataxis(walk, kidding)

All else being equal, the leftmost phrase should be the head, but in rare situations the parataxis can go ``backwards’’:

The guy , John said , left early in the morning
parataxis(left, said)

See also: language-general documentation of parataxis

edit parataxis

punct: punctuation

This is used for any piece of punctuation in a clause, if punctuation is being retained in the typed dependencies. By default, punctuation is not retained in the output.

Go home !
punct(Go, !)

edit punct

remnant: remnant in ellipsis

The remnant relation is used to provide a satisfactory treatment of ellipsis (in the case of gapping and stripping, where a predicational or verbal head gets elided) without having to postulate empty nodes in the basic representation. This is something that was lacking in earlier versions of SD and provides a basis for being able to reconstruct dependencies in the enhanced representation of SD.

USD adopts an analysis that notes that in ellipsis a remnant corresponds to a correlate in a preceding clause. The remnant relation connects each remnant to its correlate in the basic dependency representation. This is then a sufficient representation to reconstruct the predicate-argument structure in the enhanced representation.

Marie went to Paris and Miriam to Prague
nsubj(went-2, Marie-1)
root(root-0, went-2)
nmod(went-2, Paris-4)
case(Paris-4, to-3)
cc(went-2, and-5)
remnant(Marie-1, Miriam-6)
case(Prague-8, to-7)
remnant(Paris-4, Prague-8)

Even in the more complex example below, the remnant relations enable us to correctly retrieve the subjects and objects in the clauses with an elided verb.

John won bronze , Mary silver , and Sandy gold
nsubj(won-2, John-1)
dobj(won-2, bronze-3)
remnant(John-1, Mary-5)
remnant(Mary-5, Sandy-9)
remnant(bronze-3, silver-6)
remnant(silver-6, gold-10)

Note in particular that (unlike for conj), remnant uses a chaining analysis where each subsequent remnant depends on the immediately preceding remnant/correlate. The reason for this is that otherwise in a sentence with 2 or more chained ellipses the dependency structure would no longer track which remnants go together. It would become impossible to determine whether Mary won silver and Sandy gold, or Mary won gold and Sandy silver.

Instances of stripping typically occur when there is only one argument in the second clause, but with an accompanying adverbial modifier such as not or only. We model these sentences with the remnant relation as well.

Marie went to Paris , not Miriam
nsubj(went-2, Marie-1)
root(root-0, went-2)
nmod(went-2, Paris-4)
case(Paris-4, to-3)
remnant(Marie-1, Miriam-7)
neg(Miriam-7, not-6)
Marie did go to Europe , but only to Paris .
nsubj(go-3, Marie-1)
aux(go-3, did-2)
root(root-0, go-3)
case(Europe-5, to-4)
nmod(go-3, Europe-5)
cc(go-3, but-7)
advmod(Paris-10, only-8)
case(Paris-10, to-9)
remnant(Europe-5, Paris-10)

Sometimes in these constructions adverbials will be “sprouted”, and have no correlate in the precedeing clause. In such a situation, the adverbial should attach to one of the remnants; in principle it shouldn’t matter which remnant it attaches to, since all remnants at a particular depth of embedding point back to the same semantic event (which the adverbial is a part of). However, to enforce a regular system, the adverbial should depend on the nearest leftmost dependent.

Mary will come today and Tom tomorrow , if he finds a ticket .
nsubj(come-3, Mary-1)
aux(come-3, will-2)
root(root-0, come-3)
advmod(come-3, today-4)
cc(come-3, and-5)
remnant(Mary-1, Tom-6)
remnant(today-4, tomorrow-7)
mark(finds-11, if-9)
nsubj(finds-11, he-10)
advcl(tomorrow-7, finds-11)
det(ticket-13, a-12)
dobj(finds-11, ticket-13)
Mary will come today and , if he finds a ticket , Tom tomorrow .
nsubj(come-3, Mary-1)
aux(come-3, will-2)
root(root-0, come-3)
advmod(come-3, today-4)
cc(come-3, and-5)
mark(finds-9, if-7)
nsubj(finds-9, he-8)
advcl(Tom-13, finds-9)
det(ticket-11, a-10)
dobj(finds-9, ticket-11)
remnant(Mary-1, Tom-13)
remnant(today-4, tomorrow-14)

The remnant relation is used when no predicational material is present. In contrast, in right-node-raising (RNR) and VP-ellipsis constructions in which some kind of predicational or verbal material is still present, the remnant relation is not used. In RNR, the verbs are coordinated and the object is a dobj of the first verb:

John bought and ate an apple
nsubj(bought-2, John-1)
cc(bought-2, and-3)
conj(bought-2, ate-4)
det(apple-6, an-5)
dobj(bought-2, apple-6)

In VP-ellipsis, we keep the auxiliary as the head, as shown below:

John will win gold and Mary will too
nsubj(win-3, John-1)
aux(win-3, will-2)
dobj(win-3, gold-4)
cc(win-3, and-5)
conj(win-3, will-7)
nsubj(will-7, Mary-6)
advmod(will-7, too-8)

edit remnant

reparandum: overridden disfluency

We use reparandum to indicate disfluencies overridden in a speech repair. The disfluency is the dependent of the repair.

Go to the righ- to the left .
nmod(Go-1, left-7)
reparandum(left-7, righ-)
case(righ-, to-2)
det(righ-, the-3)
case(left-7, to-5)
det(left-7, the-6)

edit reparandum

root: root

The root grammatical relation points to the root of the sentence. A fake node “ROOT” is used as the governor. The ROOT node is indexed with “0”, since the indexation of real words in the sentence starts at 1.

ROOT I love French fries .
root(ROOT, love)
ROOT Bill is an honest man
root(ROOT, man)

edit root

vocative: vocative

The vocative relation is used to mark dialogue participant addressed in text (common in emails and newsgroup postings). The relation links the addressee’s name to its host sentence.

Guys , take it easy!
vocative(take, Guys)

edit vocative

xcomp: open clausal complement

An open clausal complement (xcomp) of a verb or an adjective is a predicative or clausal complement without its own subject. The reference of the subject is necessarily determined by an argument external to the xcomp (normally by the object of the next higher clause, if there is one, or else by the subject of the next higher clause. These complements are always non-finite, and they are complements (arguments of the higher verb or adjective) rather than adjuncts/modifiers, such as a purpose clause. The name xcomp is borrowed from Lexical-Functional Grammar.

He says that you like to swim
xcomp(like, swim)
Sue asked George to respond to her offer
xcomp(asked, respond)
I consider him a fool
xcomp(consider, fool)
I consider him honest
xcomp(consider, honest)
She looks very beautiful
xcomp(looks, beautiful)

edit xcomp