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UD for Latin

Tokenization and Word Segmentation

Index Thomisticus Treebank, LLCT and UDante

• The tokenization of the Index Thomisticus Treebank (IT-TB) is inherited from that of the original Index Thomisticus corpus by father Roberto Busa. In general, words are delimited by whitespace characters. Punctuations are assigned a token on their own. Description of exceptions follows.
• Words that include enclitics -que, -ve or -ne are split into two tokens, namely one for the word without the enclitics and one for the enclitics. Example: the word corporique (lit. “and to the body”) is split into two tokens: corpori and que. In the IT-TB, this is the only exception to the original tokenization provided by the Index Thomisticus. As of yet, mutliword tokens are missing from the IT-TB (but not LLCT nor UDante).
• Hyphenated compounds such as necesse-esse are not split into two tokens. They are considered one token.
• Dots are not assigned a token on their own when they are part of an abbreviation (e.g., etc. and metaph.).

PROIEL

• In general, words are delimited by whitespace characters. There is no punctuation in the syntactic trees. The exception is words that include enclitics -que, -ve or -ne are split into two tokens, namely one for the word without the enclitics and one for the enclitics. Example: the word corporique (lit. “and to the body”) is split into two tokens: corpori and que.

Perseus

• Tokenization is whitespace-based, with the exception of enclitic -que, -ve, and -ne being split.

Morphology

Tags

Index Thomisticus Treebank, LLCT and UDante

• The IT-TB uses 15 universal POS categories. Interjections (INTJ) and Symbols (SYM) are not used.
• Among determiners (DET), we notice the peculiar proto-article ly (only IT-TB).
• We generally register only one main auxiliary verb (AUX), the Classical sum (“to be”). The form iri (present passive infinitive of the verb eo, “to go”), Classically attested for the periphrastic future passive infinitive, is never used in the IT-TB and neither in the LLCT nor UDante. Also habeo ‘to have’, a later Romance innovation, does not appear as an auxiliary in the IT-TB nor in UDante, despite the time period, but does in the LLCT. The auxiliary sum is used in several types of constructions:
  • The copula with non-verbal predicates.
  • Periphrastic future active infinitive.
  • Periphrastic passive perfect indicative.
  • Periphrastic passive pluperfect indicative.
  • Periphrastic passive future perfect indicative.
  • Periphrastic passive perfect subjunctive.
  • Periphrastic passive plusperfect subjunctive.
  • Periphrastic perfect passive infinitive.
• In the IT-TB, sum is the only lemma that occurs with the AUX tag, and it always occurs as such. In some contexts, though (e.g. purely existential sentences), it is considered the head of the predication.
• Verbs with modal meaning are not considered auxiliaries in Latin.

PROIEL

• PROIEL uses 14 universal POS categories. Punctuation (PUNCT), Particles (PART) and Symbols (SYM) are not used.
• Among the traditional pronouns of Latin grammar, those that can occur adnominally are treated as detererminers DET.
• The only common auxiliary verb (AUX) is sum (“to be”), although there are a few cases of eo as used in the periphrastic future passive infinitive.

Perseus

• Perseus uses 12 POS tags. Notably, DET, PART, and AUX are not used.

Nominal Features

Index Thomisticus Treebank, LLCT and UDante

• Nominal words (common/proper nouns NOUN/PROPN) have an inherent Gender feature with one of three values: Masc, Fem or Neut; pronouns PRON might have one, but can also not express one (e.g. ego ‘I’, first singular person).
  • The following parts of speech inflect for Gender because they must agree with nouns: ADJ, DET, NUM (some), VERB and possibly AUX (nominal forms).Only participles (including gerundives) inflect for gender in agreement with some head; so-called finite forms do not express this category.
• The two values of the Number feature are Sing and Plur. The following parts of speech inflect for number: NOUN, PROPN, PRON, ADJ, DET, NUM, VERB, AUX.
• Case has 7 possible values: nominative Nom, genitive Gen, dative Dat, accusative Acc, vocative Voc (marginal), locative Loc (marginal), ablative Abl. It occurs with nominal words, i.e., NOUN, PROPN, PRON, ADJ, DET, NUM, and also with attributive nominal forms of verbs (VERB/AUX) (participles, including gerundives/gerunds).

PROIEL

• As for Index Thomisticus, except PROIEL does not recognize a locative case in Latin.

Perseus

TODO

Degree

Index Thomisticus Treebank, LLCT and UDante

• Degree applies to adjectives (ADJ), some adverbs (ADV), and possibly determiners (DET), with the values of comparative Cmp and absolute superlative Abs (positive Pos is also traditionally considered a degree, but it is rather the absence of one). All these classes and nouns (NOUN) can show a diminutive degree; verbs (VERB), in their nominal forms, can take any of the above mentioned values analogously.

PROIEL

• Degree applies to adjectives (ADJ) and adverbs (ADV).

Perseus

TODO

Verbal Features

Index Thomisticus Treebank, LLCT and UDante

• Verbs (both finite and non finite forms) have a lexical Aspect, either imperfective (Imp; traditionally infectum), perfective (Perf), prospective (Prosp; traditionally also “future”; only on nominal forms), and possibly inchoative (Inch, if considered inflectional and not derivational).
• Finite verbs always bear one of three values of Mood: indicative Ind (realis), imperative Imp or subjunctive Sub (irrealis).
• There are five values of Tense: past Past, present Pres, pluperfect Pqp or future Fut.
• There are two values of the Voice feature: active Act and passive Pass. Diathesis (voice) is tied to morphology, not syntax: this means that deponent verbs are always tagged for a passive voice.
• Verb forms are annotated by means of VerbForm, which distinguishes the so-called finite form Fin from nominal forms, oriented towards the possible other lexical parts of speech: participles Part (verbal ADJ; including gerundives and also gerunds), verb nouns (verbal NOUN; traditionally infinitives Inf, and possibly also supines) and converbs (verbal ADV; traditionally the active supine Sup).
• Since the annotation of verbal features in the UD formalism deviates in some points from traditional denominations, TraditionalMood and TraditionalTense features are implemented in the MISC field so as to ease the retrieval of verb forms according to a more classical schema.

PROIEL

• There are four values of Tense: Past, Pres, Pqp or Fut.
• There are two values of Aspect: Imp and Perf.
• Traditional categories like the imperfect and the future perfect are decomposed into Aspect=Imp|Tense=Past and Aspect=Perf|Tense=Fut.

Perseus

TODO

Pronouns, Determiners, Quantifiers

Index Thomisticus Treebank, LLCT and UDante

• PronType is used with pronouns (PRON), determiners (DET), some numerals (NUM), derived adverbs (ADV), and in a more etymological sense also conjunctions (CCONJ/SCONJ).
• NumType has four values: cardinal Card, distributive Dist, multiplicative Mult, ordinal Ord. NumType is used with numerals (NUM), adjectives (ADJ) and adverbs (ADV).
• The Poss feature marks possessive personal adjectives (e.g. noster ‘ours’).
• The Reflex feature marks reflexive elements such as (sui).
• Person is a feature of finite verbs (VERB/AUX) and has three values, 1, 2 and 3.
• Also other features, mostly of lexical type, are used.

PROIEL

• PronType is used with pronouns (PRON) and relative and interrogative adverbs (ADV).

Perseus

TODO

Other Features

Index Thomisticus Treebank, LLCT and UDante

Besides the layered features listed above, there are also the following language-specific features:

• Abbr for abbreviations. One value: Yes. Example: metaph. (standing for metaphysica)
• NumForm for Roman numerals. One value: Roman. Example: VIII (Roman number for ‘8’)
• VerbType has been used for modals. One value: Mod. Example: potest ‘(it/she/he) can’.

Perseus

TODO

Syntax

Core Arguments, Oblique Arguments and Adjuncts

Index Thomisticus Treebank, LLCT and UDante

• Nominal subject (nsubj) is a noun phrase (possibly headed by a verbal nominal form) mostly in the nominative, but also in the accusative or ablative case (and actually not limited to that), without preposition.
  • Clausal subjects csubj are very often expressed by means of verb nouns (“infinitives”), but can also be finite predications and then nearly always introduced by a (subordinating) conjunction.
• Objects (obj) (core arguments) are bare noun phrases in the accusative. Secondary nominal objects (iobj), also in the accusative, are a marginal and very restricted phenomenon in Latin (but the combination obj + ccomp is slightly more frequent).
  • A complement/adjunct distinction (not part of the UD formalism) is maintained by means of the subtyped relation obl:arg for those complements which are not expressed as core arguments.
• All other arguments (usually other cases than nominative/accusative or prepositional phrases) are oblique (obl). Being in the accusative case is a necessary, but not sufficient condition to be obj: a particular case are for example the relational (“Greek-style”) accusative noun phrases, but also temporal or locative arguments in the bare accusative.
• If a verb subcategorizes for the infinitive (e.g. modal verbs or verbs of control), the infinitival complement is labeled xcomp.
• In passive clauses:
  • the subject is labeled with either nsubj:pass or csubj:pass;
  • the auxiliary verb in periphrastic passives is labeled with aux:pass;
  • if the agent is present, it has the form of an ablative noun phrase, possibly introduced by the preposition ab ‘by’, and it is labeled obl:agent.

PROIEL

PROIEL maintains the following differences, more proper to the original LDT formalism, with respect to the points explained above.

• Objects may be bare noun phrases in accusative, dative, genitive or ablative, or prepositional phrases. For the purpose of UD the objects are divided to core objects, labeled obj or iobj, and oblique objects, labeled obl:arg.
  • A bare accusative is considered core.
  • All prepositional objects are considered oblique.
  • If a verb subcategorizes for two core objects, one of them accusative (or ccomp) and the other non-accusative, then the non-accusative object is labeled iobj. Core nominal objects in other situations are labeled just obj.
• Adjuncts (or adverbial modifiers realized as noun phrases) are usually prepositional phrases, but they can be bare noun phrases as well. They are labeled obl. e.g.:
  • dative noun phrases with benefactive or possessive role (i.e. if the verb does not subcategorize for a single dative object and if it is not a verb of giving or similar, where the dative could be interpreted as the recipient).
  • ablative noun phrases expressing the way or means with which something was done.
  • all prepositional phrases that are not prepositional objects (i.e., their role and form is not defined lexically by the predicate) are adjuncts.
• In passive clauses, the agent is labeled with obl:arg.

Perseus

TODO

Non-verbal Clauses

Index Thomisticus Treebank and PROIEL

• The copula verb sum ‘to be’ is used in equational, attributional, locative, possessive and benefactory nonverbal clauses.
• Purely existential clauses (without indicating location) use sum as well, but this is treated as the head of the clause (and tagged VERB instead of AUX in PROIEL).

LLCT and UDante

The copula sum ‘to be’ is always AUX and always annotated as a functional dependent with cop of the given (more) lexical word, barring elliptic constructions.

Perseus

TODO

Relations Overview

Index Thomisticus Treebank, LLCT and UDante

A selection of the more specific (and interesting) relation subtypes used in these treebanks:

• acl:relcl for adnominal clauses functioning as relative clauses (which in Latin means that they contain a reference to the head by means of a so-called relative pronoun)
  • Note: adnominal clauses headed by participial verb forms do not receive the :relcl subtype.
• advcl:abs to highlight ablativi absoluti (embedded non-finite clauses whose subject does not also appear as argument in the matrix clause)
• advcl:cmp for the standard of comparison expressed as a(n elliptic) clause
  • and similarly obl:cmp for purely nominal standards of comparisons
• advcl:pred secondary predications of all kind, including e.g. “conjunct participles” or “floating quantifiers” (embedded non-finite, possibly nominal, clauses whose subject is co-referent to an argument in the matrix clause)
  • xcomp:pred secondary predications which is a core extension of the main predication
• ccomp:reported for object clauses expressing direct speech
  • parataxis:reporting for the reversed phenomenon
• csubj:relcl for so-called free relatives acting as subjects, containing a “double pronoun”
  • so similarly ccomp:relcl, xcomp:relcl, advcl:relcl
• advmod:emph for adverbs or particles that modify noun phrases and emphasize or negate them (focalisers)
• expl:pass for reflexive clitics in reflexive passives (only IT-TB)
• obl:arg for oblique arguments which are considered complements
• conj:expl for appositive additions functioning as a expansions (also by repetition) of any element(the _scilicet ‘that is’ type)
• various subtypes of dislocated according to the original relation of the displaced element
• The following relation types are not used at all: clf, list

PROIEL

• aux:pass for passive auxiliaries
• csubj:pass for clausal subjects of passive verbs
• flat:foreign for passages not in Latin (typically quoted passages in Greek)
• flat:name for multi-token names
• nsubj:pass for nominal subjects of passive verbs
• obl:agent for the agent of passive verbs

Perseus

No subtypes are used.

Treebanks

There are five Latin UD treebanks:

• Latin-ITTB
• Latin-Perseus
• Latin-PROIEL
• Latin-LLCT
• Latin-UDante

Documentation

The writing up of the Latin-specific documentation, detailing the guide lines pursued by the three currently active Latin treebanks (ITTB, LLCT and UDante), is a work in (slow) progress and has been focusing on the more language-specific issues and values, before going into the details of more universally defined elements. As of now, all research, setting of the guide lines and compilation of documentation pages is being performed by Flavio M. Cecchini (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano), so send any question, doubt or critic to flavio.cecchini[at]unicatt[.]it, or, better, open an issue on UD’s GitHub!

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