Features
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Animacy: animacy
This feature is not being used in English.
Aspect: aspect
This feature is not being used in English.
In English, some tenses are a combination of tense and aspect. But as the aspect always depends on the tense we mark (verbs)[en-pos/VERB] only with the tense feature.
Case: case
In English, the Case feature is only used for some personal pronouns. Pronouns can be either in the direct or oblique case.
Nom: direct
The following pronouns are in the direct case:
- I, you, he, she, it, we, they
Acc: oblique
The following pronouns are in the oblique case:
- me, you, him, her, it, us, them, myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves
Note that you and it can be either in the direct or oblique case. If they appear in subject
position, they are marked as Nom, while if they appear in object position or if they have a prepositional
case marker, they are marked as Acc.
Reflexive pronouns only have this feature if they are used in object position and not if they are used as intensive pronouns.
Definite: definiteness or state
In English, the Definite feature is marked only on the determiners the, a, and an.
Ind: indefinite
- a, an
Def: definite
- the
Degree: degree of comparison
In English, Degree is a feature of (adjectives)[en-pos/ADJ] and some (adverbs)[en-pos/ADV].
Pos: positive, first degree
This is the base form that merely states a quality of something,
without comparing it to qualities of others. Note that although this
degree is traditionally called “positive”, negative properties can be
compared, too. All words with PTB tags JJ have this feature.
Examples
- young woman
Additionally, the following adverbs with PTB tag RB also have this feature:
- hard, fast, late, long, high, easy, early, far, soon, low, close, well, badly, little
Cmp: comparative, second degree
The quality of one object is compared to the same quality of another
object. All words with PTB tags JJR are marked with this
feature.
Examples
- The man is younger than me.
The following adverbs with PTB tag RBR also have this feature:
- harder, faster, later, longer, higher, easier, earlier, further, farther, sooner, lower, closer, better, worse, less, quicker, slower
Sup: superlative, third degree
The quality of one object is compared to the same quality of all other
objects within a set. All words with PTB tags JJS are marked with this
feature.
Examples
- This is the youngest woman in our team.
The following adverbs with PTB tag RBS also have this feature:
- hardest, fastest, latest, longest, highest, easiest, earliest, furthest, farthest, soonest, lowest, closest, best, worst, least, quickest, slowest
Note that most adverbs in English don’t have a Degree feature because their sencond and third degree are constructed periphrastically using the adverbs more and most, e.g. more quietly, most seriously.
Gender: gender
In English, Gender is marked only on 3rd-person personal pronouns.
Masc: masculine gender
- he, his, him, himself
Fem: feminine gender
- she, her, hers, herself
Neut: neuter gender
- it, its, itself
Mood: mood
In English, Mood is a feature of finite verbs. It is used to express modality and further subclassify finite verb forms.
Ind: indicative
The indicative can be considered the default mood. A verb in indicative merely states that something happens, has happened or will happen, without adding any attitude of the speaker.
Examples
- He makes a sandwich.
Imp: imperative
The speaker uses imperative to order or ask the addressee to do the action of the verb.
Examples
- Make a sandwich!
Sub: subjunctive
The subjunctive mood is used under certain circumstances in subordinate clauses, typically for actions that are subjective or otherwise uncertain such as expressing an opinion or describing one’s state of mind. It is also used to make statements contrary to fact.
- I suggest that he see a doctor.
- If I were rich…
(Note that there is currently no reliable way of identifying subjunctive verbs in an automatic way and therefore we currently also mark present subjunctive verbs as infinitives and past subjunctive verbs as past indicative verbs.)
Negative: whether the word can be or is negated
We currently don’t use this feature in English.
NumType: numeral type
In English, numerical expressions such as cardinal and ordinal numbers have a NumType feature.
Card: cardinal number
Cardinal numbers with the PTB tag CD.
Examples
- one, 11, …
Ord: ordinal number
Ordinal numbers with the PTB tag JJ.
Examples
- second, 23rd, …
(Note that our automatic feature extractor only marks written-out ordinal numbers up to tenth as ordinal numbers. Ordinals expressed with digits such as 42nd can be arbitrarily large.)
Mult: multiplicative numbers
The following adverbs with the PTB tag RB:
- once, twice
Number: number
In English, Number is a feature of nouns and other parts of speech that mark agreement with nouns, i.e. personal pronouns, verbs, and some determiners.
Sing: singular
A singular noun denotes one person, animal or thing. Every noun with the PTB tag NN or NNP is marked with this feature.
Examples:
- an apple, a train
Pronouns that refer to a single person, an animal or a thing are also marked with this feature.
- I, me, my, myself, he, his, him, himself, she, her, hers, herself, it, its, itself
We also mark all verbs with the PTB tag VBZ with this feature.
Examples:
- she does
- he walks
Further, we mark inflections of be that can only have a singular noun or pronoun in subject position with this feature.
- am, is, was
Demonstrative determiners of singular nouns and demonstrative pronouns that refer to singular nouns are also marked with this feature.
- this, that
Plur: plural
A plural noun denotes several persons, animals or things. Every noun with the PTB tag NNS or NNPS is marked with this feature.
Examples:
- several apples, two trains
Pronouns that refer to a single person, an animal or a thing are also marked with this feature.
- we, us, our, ours, ourselves, yourselves, they, them, their, theirs, themselves
Demonstrative determiners of plural nouns and demonstrative pronouns that refer to plural nouns are also marked with this feature.
- these, those
We currently don’t mark plurale tantum or collective/mass nouns.
Person: person
In English, Person is a feature of personal and possessive pronouns, and of some verbs to mark agreement with its subject.
1: first person
In singular, the first person refers just to the speaker / author. In plural, it must include the speaker and one or more additional persons.
This feature is only used for pronouns and two inflections of be:
- am, was (if I is its subject), I, we, me, us, my, mine, our, ours, myself, ourselves
2: second person
In singular, the second person refers to the addressee of the utterance / text. In plural, it may mean several addressees and optionally some third persons too.
This feature is only used for pronouns:
- you, your, yours, yourself, yourselves
3: second person
The third person refers to one or more persons that are neither speakers nor addressees.
It is used for the following pronouns:
- he, she, it, they, him, her, them, his, hers, their, theirs, himself, herself, itself, themselves
Additionally, it is used for verbs that require a third person singular subject which have the PTB tag VBZ.
Examples:
- he walks
- she is
Poss: possessive
In English, Poss is a Boolean feature of pronouns. It tells whether the word is possessive.
Yes: it is possesive
The following English pronouns have this feature:
- my, mine, your, yours, his, her (if it has the PTB tag
PRP$), hers, its, our, ours, their, theirs, whose
Note that there is no No value. If the word is not possessive, the Poss feature will just not be mentioned in the FEAT column.
PronType: pronominal type
In English, this feature applies to pronouns, determiners and pronominal adverbs.
Prs: personal or possessive personal pronoun or determiner
See also the Poss feature that distinguishes normal personal
pronouns from possessives. Note that Prs also includes reflexive
personal/possessive pronouns.
The following pronouns have this feature:
- I, you, he, she, it, we, they, my, your, his, her, its, our, their, mine, yours, hers, ours, theirs, me, him, us, them, myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, youselves, theirselves
Art: article
Article is a special case of determiner that bears the feature of definiteness.
In English, the following three determiners have this feature:
- a, an, the
Int: interrogative pronoun, determiner or adverb
Note that the possessive interrogative determiner (whose) can be distinguished by the Poss feature.
In English, all words with the PTB tag WDT, WP, WP$ or WRB have this feature unless
they mark the beginning of a relative clause.
Examples:
- Which one should I get?
- Who was elected president?
- Whose car is this?
- How old is he?
Rel: relative pronoun or determiner
All pronouns and determiners that mark the beginning of a relative clause have this feature.
Examples:
- The book that I read
- The book which she bought
- The book whose author was arrested
Dem: demonstrative determiner or adverb
The following determiners and adverbs have this feature:
- this, that, those, these, here, there
Note that that only has this feature when it is being used as a demonstrative determiner. If it is used to mark the beginning of a clausal complement or a relative clause it does not have this feature.
Reflex: reflexive
In English, Reflex is a feature of pronouns. It tells whether the word is reflexive, i.e. refers to the subject of its clause.
Yes: it is reflexive
The following English pronouns have this feature:
- myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves
Note that English reflexive pronouns can also be used as intensive pronouns, e.g. She herself bought a book. The above mentioned pronouns only have this feature if they are used as reflexive pronouns.
Tense: tense
In English, Tense is a feature of verbs that specifies the time when the action took / takes / will take place, in relation to the current moment or to another action in the utterance.
Pres: present tense
The present tense denotes actions that are happening right now or that usually happen. All verbs with the PTB tag VBP or VBZ have this feature. Subjunctives with the PTB tag VB also have this feature.
Examples:
- She goes home.
- I suggest that he see a doctor.
Past: past tense
The past tense denotes actions that happened before the current moment. All verbs with the PTB tag VBD and VBN have this feature.
Examples:
- She went home.
Note that the pluperfect and future tenses in English are constructed periphrastically. For example, I had been there is past perfect (pluperfect) tense, formed periphrastically by the simple past tense of the auxiliary to have and the past participle of the main verb to be. The auxiliary will be tagged VerbForm=Fin|Mood=Ind|Tense=Past and the participle will have VerbForm=Part|Tense=Past; none of the two will have Tense=Pqp.
VerbForm: form of verb
In English, VerbForm is a feature of verbs.
Fin: finite verb
Rule of thumb: if it has non-empty Mood, it is finite. English verbs with the PTB tag VBZ, VBD or VBP and modals with the PTB tag MD have this feature. Further, verbs with the PTB tag VB have this feature if they don’t have an auxiliary or modal verb attached to it.
Examples:
- I do, she has
- Read the book!
Inf: infinitive
Infinitive is the citation form of verbs in many languages. Infinitives may be used together with auxiliaries to form periphrastic tenses (e.g. future tense I will sit in a plane), they appear as arguments of modal verbs etc. English verbs with the PTB tag VB have this feature if they have an auxiliary or modal verb or the inifinitval to attached to it.
Examples:
- I have to leave.
Part: participle
Participle is a non-finite verb form that shares properties of verbs and adjectives. It is used to form various periphrastic verb forms such as complex tenses and passives. In English, all words with the PTB tag VBD have this feature. Further, words with the PTB tag VBG can also have this feature if they are preceded by an inflection of to be.
Examples:
- He could have been prepared if he had forseen it.
- I will be driving home.
Ger: gerund
Gerund is a non-finite verb form that shares properties of verbs and nouns. In English, all words with the PTB tag VBG have this feature if they are not preceded by an inflection of to be.
Examples:
- I look forward to seeing you.
- She turns a blind eye to my being late.
Voice: voice
In English, Voice is a feature of some verbs. It is only used to distinguish past participles from passive verbs which both have the PTB tag VBN.
Pass: passsive
All verbs with the PTB tag VBN that have a passive auxiliary have this feature.
Examples:
- Kennedy was killed.
- He got shot.