NCHLT: isiXhosa POS tag set

Tag set

For purposes of annotators, this tag set is by and large taken over from Taljard et al. (2008) and various documents compiled by G. Faasz and U. Heid from the IMS, Stuttgart and D.J. Prinsloo and E. Taljard, University of Pretoria. The information below refers to the current state of the tagset, but further development will probably necessitate any number of changes.

The tagset is mainly based on the lexical and morphological criteria defined by Lombard (1985) and Louwrens (1991). As described above, the logical structure of the tagset is divided into two layers of linguistic description (annotation levels):

The first annotation level (level 1) includes all mandatory, or, according to EAGLES, obligatory information, namely up to three elements: an element hinting at the word class, a second one specifying functional or syntactic properties, and a third one giving morphological specifics, cf. e.g. PRO(noun)EMP(hatic)PERS(on).

The second level of annotation (level 2) includes recommended and optional information. This level is in most cases used for a detailed description of closed class items described in the tagger lexicon. Compare the following excerpt:

Figure 1: Annotation levels

Description	Tag 1st level (mandatory information)	Tag 2nd level (optional/ recommended information)
Pronouns:
emphatic personal	PROEMPPERS	1sg,2sg,1pl,2pl
Verbals:	V	tr
Morphemes:
deficient	MORPH	def

For disjunctive languages, next to all orthographic words, all linguistic words will also be tagged, resulting in two layers of POS annotation: one for all orthographic words and one for all linguistic words. For conjunctive languages, this extra layer of POS annotation is not needed.

The tagset currently distinguishes 20 categories applicable to isiXhosa and two different levels of annotation. However, only level 1 has been annotated. The first part of the tag gives a general indication of the nature of the unit in question. These are as follows:

Tag	Explanation
PUNC	Punctuation
ABBR	Abbreviation (incl. acronyms)
ADJ	Adjective (incl. enumerative)
ADV	Adverb
CDEM	Class-indicating demonstrative
CONJ	Conjunction
COP	Copulative (copulative subject concord, demonstrative copulative, copulative verb)
FOR	Foreign
IDEO	Ideophone
INT	Interjection
INTER	Question word
N	Noun
NPP	Place and brand name
NUM	Numerative
POSS	Possessive (possessive concord, possessive pronoun)
PROEMP	Emphatic pronoun
PROQUANT	Quantitative pronoun
REL	Relative
V	Verbal
VAUX	Auxiliary verb
Tags not applicable to isiXhosa
ASP	Aspectual marker
AUX	Auxiliary stem
CN	Class-indicating nominal prefix
CO	Class-indicating object concord
CS	Class-indicating subject concord
MNEG	Negative morpheme
PART	Particle
TENS	Tense marker

PUNCTUATION

Level 1: PUNC

Notes:

• The tag PUNC is used for all punctuation marks. These include full stops, commas, colons, semi-colons, quotation marks, hyphens, exclamation marks, brackets, etc.

Examples:

;	PUNC
(	PUNC
!	PUNC
“	PUNC

ABBREVIATION

Level 1: ABBR

Notes:

• All abbreviations are tagged as ABBR. This also includes acronyms, like SONA (State of Nation Address) or NGO (non-governmental organisation).

Examples:

njl.	ABBR
NGO	ABBR

ADJECTIVE

Level 1: ADJ01-11, ADJ14-15, ADJ01a, ADJ02a, ADJLOC

Notes:

• The tag ADJ is used to tag linguistic units that consist of a noun class prefix and an adjective stem.
• The tag ADJ also includes enumeratives.
• In Xhosa, we make a distinction between adjective (hle) and relative (noun) stems (buhlungu) where different sets of prefixes are involved, i.e. adj pref as in om-hle, and subj prefix as in i-buhlungu.
• We distinguish between the “copulative/predicative” use of adj (umfana mkhulu) and the “relative” use (umfana omkulu).

Examples:

elide	ADJ05
amancinci	ADJ06
komnye	ADJLOC

ADVERB

Level 1: ADV, ADVLOC

Notes:

• Part-of-Speech tagging is about the function a word fulfils in a sentence, its grammatical context. Therefore, the tag ADV is applied if a word is used in the function of an adverb in the context of a sentence.
• Nouns belonging to the locative classes are tagged as ADVLOC, as their function is that of adverb.

Examples:

kakuhle	ADV
jikelele	ADV
ngezantsi	ADVLOC

[CLASS-INDICATING] DEMONSTRATIVE

Level 1: CDEM01-11, CDEM14-15, CDEMLOC

Notes:

• Currently, no distinction is made for the different ‘positions’ or ‘distances’ of the demonstratives. Only noun class information is included in the tag.
• The demonstratives of the locative classes (16, 17, 18) are tagged as CDEMLOC.
• The demonstratives of classes 1a and 2a are tagged as CDEM01 and CDEM02 respectively.

Examples:

lowo	CDEM01
eli	CDEM05
phaya	CDEMLOC

CONJUNCTION

Level 1: CONJ

Notes:

• Conjunctions that consist of multi-word units are not at this stage tagged as CONJ, the tokens making up the conjunctions are tagged separately.

Examples:

kanti	CONJ
ngenxa	CONJ
kwaye	CONJ

COPULATIVE

Level 1: COP

Level 2: COP_neg, COP_nil

Notes:

• The tag COP includes copulative subject concord, demonstrative copulative and copulative verb occurrences.
• The tag COP is used to tag copulative verbs stems, e.g. –le, -se, -(e)na and –(e)ba

(-be, -bê and –bilê). For the copulative verb stem –se the tag COP_neg on level 2 is used, as is the case for the verb stem –be (<-ba) when it is used in the negative form.

Examples:

akukho	COP
ngubani	COP

FOREIGN

Level 1: FOR

Notes:

• Linguistic units taken from a foreign language are tagged as FOR.

Examples:

act	FOR
guide	FOR

IDEOPHONE

Level 1: IDEO

Examples:

rhoqo	IDEO
ngqo	IDEO

INTERJECTION

Level 1: INT

Level 2: INT_neg, INT_nil

Notes:

• On level 2, the tag INT_neg is used to tag the negative interjection hhayi, cha.

Examples:

na	INT
hayi	INT

INTERROGATIVES

Level 1: INTER

Level 2: _man, _time, _loc, _N01a, _N02a

Notes:

• In some grammars, the items njani/kanjani, nini and kuphi are described as adverbs, but here they are tagged as interrogatives, asking about manner (_man), time (_time) and place (_loc) (locality) respectively.
• Since the interrogatives ubani and obani can generate agreement of classes 1a and 2a respectively, they are tagged as INTER_N01a and INTER_N02a respectively.
• Information on class numbers is included in the tag for all forms with –phi, -ni (enumerative interrogative, e.g. yisilwane sini?), -ngaki, -ngakanani?

Examples:

ingaba	INTER
ntoni	INTER

NOUN

Level 1: N01-11, N14-15, N01a, N02a, NLOC, N00

Level 2: _aug, _dim, _loc, _name, _nil

Notes:

• Although 17 noun classes plus two subclasses (1a and 2a) are distinguished for isiXhosa, only 14 noun tags are used. All locative classes (16, 17, 18, ku-) are tagged as NLOC.
• Names of people are tagged as N01a / N02a(_name).
• N00 is used for lexicalised nouns.
• It is not necessary to include information regarding singular and plural in the tag, since this information is contained in the class number. Generally, nouns with an uneven class number (1, 3, 5, 7, 9) are singular nouns, whereas those belonging to the evenly numbered classes (2, 4, 6, 8, 10) are plural nouns.
• The distinction singular/plural is not relevant for the locative classes.
• Apart from containing information on noun class numbers, tags for nouns on level 2 also include the features augmentative (_aug), diminutive (_dim), locative (_loc), name (_name) and even a combination of these, e.g. _dim_loc. These appear after the underscore ‘_’ in the tag. If none of these is present, the absence of such a feature should be indicated by _nil.

Examples:

dayagram	N00
umntu	N01
urhulumente	N01a
abahlali	N02
umzekelo	N03
iziphumo	N08
ubomi	N14
kwicandelo	NLOC

PLACE AND BRAND NAME

Level 1: NPP

Level 2: NPP_place, NPP_brand

Notes:

• If level 2 annotation are used, place names are tagged as NPP_place, brand names as NPP_brand

Examples:

KwaZulu-Natal	NPP
Mars	NPP

NUMERATIVE

Level 1: NUM

Notes:

• For all numbers and numerals (23,1998, iii, etc.) the tag NUM is used.

Examples:

2.2	NUM
2005	NUM
74(a)	NUM

POSSESSIVE

Level 1: POSS01-11, POSS14-15, POSSLOC, POSSPERS, POSSKA

Level 2: POSSPERS_1pl, POSSPERS_2pl

Notes:

• The tag POSS includes possessive concord and possessive pronoun.
• Even though the possessive pronouns of the noun classes of Xhosa are morphologically identical to the emphatic pronouns, their status as possessive pronouns is signalled by the possessive concord preceding them.
• The possessives of the locative classes (16, 17, 18) are tagged as POSSLOC.
• Although the status of forms such as gaborena, gabobona and gabolena is uncertain, these forms are tagged as POSSPERS_1pl, POSS02 and POSSPERS_2pl respectively, since they are almost always preceded by a possessive concord.

Examples:

wakho	POSS01
labahlali	POSS05
kamasipala	POSSKA

EMPHATIC PRONOUN

Level 1: PROEMP01-11, PROEMP14-15, PROEMPLOC, PROEMPPERS

Level 2: PROEMPPERS_1sg, PROEMPPERS_1pl, PROEMPPERS_2sg, PROEMPPERS_2pl

Notes:

• Emphatic pronouns are also called absolute pronouns in some grammars.
• Even when these pronouns appear in collocation with their corresponding nouns, they are tagged as PROEMP, even though in such cases they have strictly speaking, no pronominal function.

Examples:

yena	PROEMP01
kuzo	PROEMPLOC
obona	PROEMP14

QUANTITATIVE PRONOUN

Level 1: PROQUANT01-11, PROQUANT14-15, PROQUANTLOC

Notes:

• Even when these pronouns appear in collocation with their corresponding nouns, they are tagged as PROQUANT, even though in such cases they have strictly speaking, no pronominal function.

Examples:

bonke	PROQUANT02
zodwa	PROQUANT10
konke	PROQUANT15

RELATIVE

Level 1: REL

Notes:

• This POS tag can occur with a relative stem or with a relative prefix.

Examples:

abakhoyo	REL
engcono	REL

VERBAL

Level 1: V

Level 2: V_tr, V_itr, V_dtr

Notes:

• The tag V is used to tag what is generally termed verb stems.
• Prefixes (reflexive prefix, object concord first person singular, object concord class 1 prefixed to verbs stems with initial consonant b-, stabilizing prefix e- with monosyllabic stems) and suffixes that are written conjunctively to the verb root or stem are not at this stage tagged separately.
• On level 2, the degree of transitivity of verbs is indicated as V_tr (transitive), V_itr (intransitive), V_dtr (double transitive).
• Categories such as tense, mood and aspect are not indicated, since these features cannot be assigned automatically by computational means.

Examples:

afana	V
ukwakha	V
kubalulekile	V

AUXILIARY VERB

Level 1: VAUX

Level 2: VAUX_tr, VAUX_itr, VAUX_dtr

Notes:

• The tag VAUX is used to tag auxiliary verbs – in contrast with auxiliary verb stems for disjunctive languages.

Examples:

zidla	VAUX
kumele	VAUX