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This page pertains to UD version 2.

list: list

The list relation is used for chains of comparable items. In lists with more than two items, all items of the list should modify the first one. If a list is something like a list of paragraphs (for example, describing items in a catalogue), then each item will be one or more sentences and no list relations appear, as we do not have relations between sentences. However, informal and web text often contains passages which are meant to be interpreted as lists but are parsed as single sentences. For example, email signatures often contain these structures, in the form of contact information: the different contact information items are labeled as list.

Steve Jones sj@abc.xyz University of Arizona
flat:name(Steve, Jones)
list(Steve, sj@abc.xyz)
list(Steve, University)
nmod(University, Arizona)
case(Arizona, of)

If the fields in the list are explicit and have a key-value structure, the key-value pair relations are labeled as appos.

Steve Jones Phone: 555-9814 Email: jones@abc.edf
flat: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)

Another place where list has been used is for a sequence of attributes or descriptive terms used as the title line of a review (such as product or restaurant reviews, etc.):

Long Lines , Silly Rules , Rude Staff , Ok Food
list(Lines, Rules)
list(Lines, Staff)
list(Lines, Food)
amod(Lines, Long)
amod(Rules, Silly)
amod(Staff, Rude)
amod(Food, Ok)
punct(Rules, ,-3)
punct(Staff, ,-6)
punct(Food, ,-9)

However, list should not be over-used. If a construction can easily be analyzed using the grammatical relations of standard sentences, typically as a coordinated structure, then it should be analyzed with these more standard relations, even if it is laid out as a list typographically. In particular, when the list is written as a single sentence, with commas and overt coordination, then it should be analyzed as a coordinated structure.

For list items, the de facto decision taken in issue 156 is that, for enumerated lists, regardless of whether the items are numbered with arabic, roman, or other numerals, or are given letters, we will regard the item contents as the head, and the item enumerator will be a nummod of it and given the part of speech NUM. Any punctuation with the list item will be a punct dependent of the item enumerator. For itemized lists with bullet, dash or similar markers, the current standard is to give the marker a PUNCT part of speech and then to give it the dependency relation punct to the head of the item content.


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