BNC Part-of-speech codes

Extracted from the BNC Manual

AJ0

adjective (general or positive) e.g. good, old

AJC

comparative adjective e.g. better, older

AJS

superlative adjective, e.g. best, oldest

AT0

article, e.g. the, a, an, no . Note the inclusion of no: articles are defined as determiners which typically begin a noun phrase but cannot appear as its head.

AV0

adverb (general, not sub-classified as AVP or AVQ), e.g. often, well, longer, furthest. Note that adverbs, unlike adjectives, are not tagged as positive, comparative, or superlative. This is because of the relative rarity of comparative or superlative forms.

AVP

adverb particle, e.g. up, off, out. This tag is used for all prepositional adverbs, whether or not they are used idiomatically in phrasal verbs such as Come out here, or I can't hold out any longer.

AVQ

wh-adverb, e.g. when, how, why. The same tag is used whether the word is used interrogatively or to introduce a relative clause.

CJC

coordinating conjunction, e.g. and, or, but.

CJS

subordinating conjunction, e.g. although, when.

CJT

the subordinating conjunction that, when introducing a relative clause, as in the day that follows Christmas. Some theories treat that here as a relative pronoun; others as a conjunction. We have adopted the latter analysis.

CRD

cardinal numeral, e.g. one, 3, fifty-five, 6609.

DPS

possessive determiner form, e.g. your, their, his.

DT0

general determiner: a determiner which is not a DTQ e.g. this both in This is my house and This house is mine. A determiner is defined as a word which typically occurs either as the first word in a noun phrase, or as the head of a noun phrase.

DTQ

wh-determiner, e.g. which, what, whose, which. The same tag is used whether the word is used interrogatively or to introduce a relative clause.

EX0

existential there, the word thereappearing in the constructions there is..., there are ....

ITJ

interjection or other isolate, e.g. oh, yes, mhm, wow.

NN0

common noun, neutral for number, e.g. aircraft, data, committee. Singular collective nouns such as committee take this tag on the grounds that they can be followed by either a singular or a plural verb.

NN1

singular common noun, e.g. pencil, goose, time, revelation.

NN2

plural common noun, e.g. pencils, geese, times, revelations.

NP0

proper noun, e.g. London, Michael, Mars, IBM. Note that no distinction is made for number in the case of proper nouns, since plural proper names are a comparative rarity.

ORD

ordinal numeral, e.g. first, sixth, 77th, next, last. No distinction is made between ordinals used in nominal and adverbial roles. next and last are included in this category, as general ordinals.

PNI

indefinite pronoun, e.g. none, everything, one (pronoun), nobody. This tag is applied to words which always function as heads of noun phrases. Words like some and these, which can also occur before a noun head in an article-like function, are tagged as determiners, DT0 or AT0.

PNP

personal pronoun, e.g. I, you, them, ours. Note that possessive pronouns such as ours and theirs are included in this category.

PNQ

wh-pronoun, e.g. who, whoever, whom. The same tag is used whether the word is used interrogatively or to introduce a relative clause.

PNX

reflexive pronoun, e.g. myself, yourself, itself, ourselves.

POS

the possessive or genitive marker 's or '. Note that this marker is tagged as a distinct word. For example, Peter's or someone else's is tagged Peter's or someone else's ]]>

PRF

the preposition of. This word has a special tag of its own, because of its high frequency and its almost exclusively postnominal function.

PRP

preposition, other than of, e.g. about, at, in, on behalf of, with. Note that prepositional phrases like on behalf of or in spite of are treated as single words.

TO0

the infinitive marker to.

UNC

unclassified items which are not appropriately classified as items of the English lexicon. Examples include foreign (non-English) words; special typographical symbols; formulae; hesitation fillers such as errm in spoken language.

VBB

the present tense forms of the verb be, except for is or 's am, are 'm, 're, be (subjunctive or imperative), ai (as in ain't).

VBD

the past tense forms of the verb be, was, were.

VBG

-ing form of the verb be, being.

VBI

the infinitive form of the verb be, be.

VBN

the past participle form of the verb be, been

VBZ

the -s form of the verb be, is, 's.

VDB

the finite base form of the verb do, do.

VDD

the past tense form of the verb do, did.

VDG

the -ing form of the verb do, doing.

VDI

the infinitive form of the verb do, do.

VDN

the past participle form of the verb do, done.

VDZ

the -s form of the verb do, does.

VHB

the finite base form of the verb have, have, 've.

VHD

the past tense form of the verb have, had, 'd.

VHG

the -ing form of the verb have, having.

VHI

the infinitive form of the verb have, have.

VHN

the past participle form of the verb have, had.

VHZ

the -s form of the verb have, has, 's.

VM0

modal auxiliary verb, e.g. can, could, will, 'll, 'd, wo (as in won't)

VVB

the finite base form of lexical verbs, e.g. forget, send, live, return. This tag is used for imperatives and the present subjunctive forms, but not for the infinitive (VVI).

VVD

the past tense form of lexical verbs, e.g. forgot, sent, lived, returned.

VVG

the -ing form of lexical verbs, e.g. forgetting, sending, living, returning.

VVI

the infinitive form of lexical verbs , e.g. forget, send, live, return.

VVN

the past participle form of lexical verbs, e.g. forgotten, sent, lived, returned.

VVZ

the -s form of lexical verbs, e.g. forgets, sends, lives, returns.

XX0

the negative particle not or n't.

ZZ0

alphabetical symbols, e.g. A, a, B, b, c, d.

The following portmanteau tags are used to indicate where the CLAWS system has indicated an uncertainty between two possible analyses:

AJ0-AV0

adjective or adverb

AJ0-NN1

adjective or singular common noun

AJ0-VVD

adjective or past tense verb

AJ0-VVG

adjective or -ing form of the verb

AJ0-VVN

adjective or past participle

AVP-PRP

adverb particle or preposition

AVQ-CJS

wh-adverb or subordinating conjunction

CJS-PRP

subordinating conjunction or preposition

CJT-DT0

that as conjunction or determiner

CRD-PNI

one as number or pronoun

NN1-NP0

singular common noun or proper noun

NN1-VVB

singular common noun or base verb form

NN1-VVG

singular common noun or -ing form of the verb

NN2-VVZ

plural noun or -s form of lexical verb

VVD-VVN

past tense verb or past participle

The following codes are used with c elements only:

PUL

left bracket (i.e. ( or [ )

PUN

any mark of separation ( . ! , : ; - ? ... )

PUQ

quotation mark ( ` ' `` '' )

PUR

right bracket (i.e. ) or ] )

Note that some punctuation marks (notably long dashes and ellipses) are not tagged as such in the corpus, but appear simply as entity references.