Chapter 2

Words


2.1    Introduction

This chapter details the range of possible words as the bottom layer of sentence structure, while chapter 3 considers phrase layers, and chapter 4 ascends to clause layers. This unravelling of the layers of grammatical structure will show all elements as inter-related components. Consequently, understanding of what is possible at one layer really requires the integration of knowledge from all of the other layers. But discovery of structure has to start somewhere, hence the focus here on words as foundational components.

    With this chapter, words are categorised into classes informed by how words function in phrases and clauses. Word analysis involves saying with a TAG the WORD CLASS to which a given word in context belongs. This task is known as TAGGING.

    One criteria for tagging is to identify words that can be minimal components for phrase layers: words for noun phrases are discussed in section 2.2; words for adjective phrases, in section 2.3; and words for adverb phrases, in section 2.4. Section 2.5 covers other word types that appear under a noun phrase as modifiers.

    Section 2.6 presents tags for verbs which are minimal components for clause layers. Section 2.8 adds other word types that occur under a clause layer. Section 2.9 considers words that serve as connectives to combine layers. Section 2.10 looks at the treatment of punctuation. Section 2.11 deals with interjection, reaction signals, and formulaic expressions. Section 2.12 notes other possible elements of a parse.

2.1.1    Beware: Same character string in a different context with a different tag

Section 1.2.1 identifies words through the conventions of the English writing system as character strings delimited by a space on each side, while noting exceptions. Word identification is not a complete word analysis: The same character string might be used as a word in different ways in different contexts. Tagging completes the word analysis. For example, down in (2.1) occurs as a noun (N), adjective (ADJ), verb (VB), adverb particle (RP), and preposition (P-ROLE).

(2.1)
a.
(VBP;~Ipr filled) (P-ROLE with) (ADJ pure) (N down)
b.
(PRO she) (BED;~La was) (ADV very) (ADJ down)
c.
(PRO he) (VBD;~cat_Vt started) (TO to) (VB;~Tn down) (D the) (N whisky)
d.
(VB;~Tn.p tear) (RP down) (D that) (N wall)
e.
(PRO You) (MD;~cat_Vi may) (VB;~Ipr look) (ADV back) (P-ROLE down) (D the) (N mountain)

The examples of (2.1) show how there might be different tags for what are different instances in different contexts of the same character string. Tag differences due to context can happen even within the same sentence. For example, that in (2.2) occurs as a complementizer (C), determiner (D), noun (N), relative pronoun (RPRO), and demonstrative pronoun (D;_nphd_).

(2.2)
(IP-MAT 
  (NP-SBJ (PRO I)) 
  (VBP;~Tf hope) 
  (CP-THT-OB1 
    (IP-SUB (C that) 
      (NP-SBJ (D that) (N that) 
        (IP-REL 
          (NP-OB1 (RPRO that)) 
          (NP-SBJ (D;_nphd_ that)) 
          (VBD;~Tn started))) 
      (MD;~cat_Vi will) 
      (IP-INF-CAT (VB;~I end) 
        (ADVP-NIM-TMP (ADV soon)))))) 

Yet another possible tag for that is as a subordinating conjunction word (P-CONN), as seen in (2.3).

(2.3)
(IP-IMP (VB;~Dn.* tell) 
  (NP-OB2 (PRO me)) 
  (PUNC ,) 
  (PP-SCON-CNT (P-CONN that) 
    (IP-ADV 
      (NP-SBJ (PRO I)) 
      (MD;~cat_Vi might)))) 

2.2    Words that can head a noun phrase

Certain words form the minimal component required for the phrase layers that immediately contain them. Such a minimal component is called the HEAD of the phrase. The word class tags of Table 2.2 distinguish words that can head a noun phrase (NP; see section 3.2).

NSplural common noun (e.g., children, revelations, times, wishes)
Ncommon noun not subclassified as NS, that is, either singular (e.g., child, revelation, time, wish), or neutral for number (e.g., committee, fish, information)
NPRSplural proper noun (e.g., Heathers, Koreas)
NPRproper noun not subclassified as NPRS, that is either singular (e.g., Heather, Tokyo), or neutral for number (e.g., Andes, IBM)
PNXreflexive pronoun (e.g., myself, yourself, itself, ourselves), or reciprocal pronoun (e.g., each_other)
PROpersonal pronoun (e.g., I, you, them, us)
PRO;_genm_possessive pronoun, pre-nominal (Genitive 1 of Table 2.4 below) (e.g., my, your, our)
PRO;_ppge_nominal possessive personal pronoun that is the only daughter of a genitive marked preposition phrase (Genitive 2 of Table 2.4 below) (e.g., mine, yours, ours)
WPROWH-pronoun (e.g., what, who, whom)
WPRO;_genm_genitive WH-pronoun (whose)
RPROrelative pronoun (e.g., which, who, whom, that)
RPRO;_genm_genitive relative pronoun (whose)
Q;_nphd_Indefinite pronoun with quantification, which can be a compound (e.g., everybody, nothing), or a word which often occurs with the preposition of (e.g., much, many, a_lot)
D;_nphd_Indefinite pronoun not subclassified as Q;_nphd_ (e.g., someone, anything, another), and demonstrative pronoun (e.g., this, that, these, those)

Table 2.2: Tags for words that can head a noun phrase

The rest of this section describes morphosyntactic properties for identifying the words of Table 2.2.

2.2.1    Suffixes that derive nouns

There are many suffixes that derive nouns from other nouns or from words of other classes. Some examples include: {age} (package, usage), {er} (officer, teacher), {ness} (illness, awareness), {ship} (championship, relationship), {tion} (action, organisation), {ty} (ability, responsibility).

2.2.2    Count nouns and plural marking

Many nouns take the suffix {(e)s} when they refer to plural items:

(2.4)
(N hedgehog)      (NS hedgehogs)
(N revelation)    (NS revelations)
(N time)          (NS times)
(N wish)          (NS wishes)
etc.

Such nouns are instances of COUNT nouns, so called, because they can combine with numerals (e.g., three wishes). A few count nouns take the irregular suffix {(r)en} in the plural:

(2.5)
(N child)         (NS children)
(N ox)            (NS oxen)

There are also count nouns that use the same form in the singular and plural. For example, nouns for the animal species in (2.6) look like singular nouns, and so are tagged N, but can also be used as plurals (e.g., three deer); while (2.7) is tagged NS for looking like a plural, but might also refer to a single pair.

(2.6)
(N deer)
(N fish)
(2.7)
(NS scissors)

2.2.3    Mass nouns

In contrast to count nouns, there are MASS (or noncount) nouns that can neither combine with numerals nor inflect for number. For example:

(2.8)
(N gold)
(N information)

It is possible for the same noun to belong to both count and mass categories: in Her hair is brown, hair is a mass noun, but in I found a hair in my soup, it is a count noun.

2.2.4    Proper nouns

Proper nouns are written with an initial capital letter. Inflection for number is rare, but is possible in talk about more than one entity with the same name, e.g., There are two Heathers in my class.

(2.9)
(NPR Heather)
(NPRS Heathers)

2.2.5    Genitive case

Both proper nouns and common nouns can be case marked — but only for genitive case — by the genitive suffix {'s} (or {'} if the noun already has the plural suffix {s}). For parsing, the genitive marking is made to form a distinct word that is tagged GENM:

GENMThe genitive marker {'s} or {'}

Table 2.3: Tag for genitive marker

This marker is placed leftmost under an NP-GENV projection that comprises the genitive content. For example:

(2.10)
(NP-SBJ 
  (NP-GENV (NPR Wendy) (GENM <apos>s)) 
  (N boyfriend)) 
(2.11)
(NP-OB1 
  (NP-GENV (D a) (N couple) 
    (PP (P-ROLE of) 
      (NP (NS hours))) 
    (GENM <apos>)) 
  (N work)) 

Double marking of a genitive is possible when the content of the genitive has both a following genitive marker and a preceding of preposition, as in (2.12).

(2.12)
(NP-NSBJ (D that) (N microphone) 
  (PP-GENV (P-ROLE of) 
    (NP (NPR Scott) (GENM <apos>s)))) 

2.2.6    Reciprocal, reflexive, and personal pronouns

This section presents an overview of reciprocal and reflexive pronouns (PNX), and personal pronouns (PRO). Such words are understood in the context of their occurrence, often by taking already mentioned noun phrases as antecedents. They can appear in full noun phrase positions, with the range of grammatical markings detailed in Table 2.4.

1st person 2nd person 3rd person
Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
Masculine Feminine Neuter
Reciprocal (PNX) each_other, one_another
Reflexive (PNX) myself ourselves yourself yourselves himself herself itself themselves
Subject (PRO) I we you he she it they
Non-subject (PRO) me us him her them
Genitive 1 (PRO;_genm_) my our your his its their
Genitive 2 (PRO;_ppge_) mine ours yours hers theirs

Table 2.4: Reciprocal and reflexive pronouns (PNX), and personal pronouns (PRO)

    The reciprocal pronouns each_other and one_another are used to indicate a relationship between conjoined nouns, for example, the love relationship in (2.13).

(2.13)
(IP-MAT 
  (NP-SBJ 
    (NLYR 
      (NLYR (NPR John)) 
      (CONJP (CONJ and) 
        (NLYR (NPR Mary))))) 
  (VBP;~Tn love) 
  (NP-OB1 (PNX each_other))) 

Reflexive personal pronouns can indicate that the subject and object are the same entity, as in (2.14).

(2.14)
(IP-MAT 
  (NP-SBJ;{GUN} (PRO It)) 
  (VBP;~Tn fires) 
  (NP-OB1;{GUN} (PNX itself))) 

Reflexive forms are also used for emphasis, as seen with (2.15), where myself is annotated as an adverbial noun phrase with reflexive function (NP-RFL).

(2.15)
(IP-MAT 
  (NP-SBJ (PRO I)) 
  (VBD;~Tn made) 
  (NP-OB1 (PRO it)) 
  (ADVP-NIM-MNR (ADV all)) 
  (NP-RFL (PNX myself))) 

    A look across the columns of Table 2.4 shows that the ‘person’ category is useful when differentiating the various reflexive and personal pronouns. The first person refers to the speaker(s), the second person refers to the hearer(s), and the third person refers to other entities. Person is further distinguished into singular and plural reference. Further distinction is possible with third person singular pronouns (reflexive and personal), since they inflect for gender: This gives: masculine he/him(self)/his, feminine she/her(self)/hers, and neuter it(self)/its.

    A look down the rows of Table 2.4 shows that pronouns are marked for more grammatical cases than common nouns or proper nouns. In addition to genitive case, pronouns are marked for nominative case (marking the subject of the clause: I shrugged), and accusative case (marking the object acted on by the verb: James tickled me).

(2.16)
(IP-MAT 
  (NP-SBJ (PRO I)) 
  (VBD;~I shrugged)) 
(2.17)
(IP-MAT 
  (NP-SBJ (NPR James)) 
  (VBD;~Tn tickled) 
  (NP-OB1 (PRO me))) 

    Genitive pronouns can be either:

(2.18)
(NP 
  (NP-GENV (PRO;_genm_ our)) 
  (NS friends)) 
(2.19)
(IP-MAT 
  (NP-SBJ (PRO it)) 
  (BEP;~Ln <apos>s) 
  (NP-PRD2 
    (NP-GENV (PRO;_ppge_ theirs)))) 

As shown by examples (2.18) and (2.19), with parsing, a genitive pronoun (dependent (PRO;_genm_) or independent (PRO;_ppge_)) is the only element of an NP-GENV layer. Furthermore, for PRO;_ppge_, the NP-GENV layer is the only element of the containing noun phrase.

2.2.7    Other types of pronouns

Other types of pronouns found in English include:

(2.20)
(CP-QUE-MAT 
  (IP-SUB 
    (NP-SBJ (WPRO Who)) 
    (VBD;~I came)) 
  (PUNC ?)) 
(2.21)
(CP-QUE-MAT 
  (IP-SUB 
    (NP-OB1 (WPRO What)) 
    (DOD did) 
    (NP-SBJ (PRO it)) 
    (VB;~Tn mean)) 
  (PUNC ?)) 
(2.22)
(NP (D;_nphd_ anything) 
  (IP-REL 
    (NP-SBJ (RPRO that)) 
    (BEP;~La <apos>s) 
    (ADJP-PRD2 (ADJ relevant)))) 
(2.23)
(NP-ESBJ (D an) (N iron) (N hook) 
  (IP-REL 
    (NP-OB1 (RPRO which)) 
    (NP-SBJ;{CURT} (PRO he)) 
    (VBD;~Tn unfastened))) 
(2.24)
(PP-SCON (P-CONN as) 
  (IP-ADV 
    (NP-SBJ (Q;_nphd_ everyone)) 
    (VBP;~I knows))) 
(2.25)
(IP-MAT 
  (NP-SBJ (Q;_nphd_ nobody)) 
  (VBP;~Tf knows)) 
(2.26)
(NP-OB1 (Q;_nphd_ all) 
  (PP (P-ROLE of) 
    (NP (PRO them)))) 
(2.27)
(NP-SBJ (Q;_nphd_ none) 
  (PP (P-ROLE of) 
    (NP (PRO them)))) 
(2.28)
(PP-SCON-CNT (P-CONN in_case) 
  (IP-ADV 
    (NP-SBJ (D;_nphd_ somebody)) 
    (VBP;~I comes))) 
(2.29)
(NP-SBJ (D;_nphd_ some) 
  (PP (P-ROLE of) 
    (NP (PRO them)))) 
(2.30)
(PP-SCON (P-CONN as) 
  (IP-ADV 
    (NP-SBJ (D;_nphd_ one)) 
    (MD;~cat_Vi would) 
    (IP-INF-CAT (VB;~I expect)))) 
(2.31)
(PP-SCON-MOD (P-CONN as) 
  (IP-ADV 
    (NP-SBJ (PRO you)) 
    (MD;~cat_Vi can) 
    (IP-INF-CAT (VB;~I see)))) 
(2.32)
(IP-MAT 
  (NP-SBJ (PRO I)) 
  (DOP do) 
  (NEG;_clitic_ n<apos>t) 
  (VB;~Tn want) 
  (NP-OB1 (D;_nphd_ that))) 
(2.33)
(IP-MAT 
  (NP-SBJ (PRO I)) 
  (MD;~cat_Vi <apos>ll) 
  (IP-INF-CAT (HV;~Tn have) 
    (NP-OB1 (D;_nphd_ these)))) 
(2.34)
(NP-OB1 (D this) (N point)) 
Near speaker Away from speaker
Singular this that
Plural these those

Table 2.5: Demonstrative pronouns (D;_nphd_)/determiners (D)


2.3    Words that can head an adjective phrase

For a word to be an adjective, it must be able to function as the head of an adjective phrase (ADJP; see section 3.3), often as the only element of the phrase. Adjectives are tagged as in Table 2.6 to distinguish comparative and superlative forms from general forms.

ADJGeneral adjective: an adjective not subclassified as ADJR or ADJS (e.g., old, good, male)
ADJRComparative adjective (e.g., older, better)
ADJSSuperlative adjective (e.g., oldest, best)

Table 2.6: Tags for words that can head an adjective phrase

    The comparative form of an adjective is typically indicated by the suffix {er}, whereas the superlative form is typically indicated by the suffix {est}; see Table 2.7.

General (ADJ) Comparative (ADJR) Superlative (ADJS)
Gradable old older oldest
good better best
Non-gradable male

Table 2.7: Forms of adjectives


2.4    Words that can head an adverb phrase

For a word to be an adverb, it must be able to function as the head of an adverb phrase (ADVP; see section 3.4), often as the only element of the phrase. Adverbs are tagged as in Table 2.8 to distinguish comparative, superlative, and WH froms from general forms.

ADVGeneral adverb: an adverb not subclassified as ADVR, ADVS, RADV, or WADV (e.g., often, well, really).
ADVRComparative adverb (e.g., more, less, farther)
ADVSSuperlative adverb (e.g., most, least, farthest)
RADVWh-adverb that is the relative adverb of a relative clause (e.g., how, when, where, whereby)
WADVWh-adverb (e.g., how, when, where, why)
RPAdverbial particle (e.g., up, off, out)

Table 2.8: Tags for words that can head an adverb phrase


2.5    Other noun phrase level words

Section 2.2 above has already discussed words that can head a noun phrase. Table 2.9 gives tags for other words that can be immediate components of a noun phrase, but that can't be a noun phrase head. Rather, these words precede the head within noun phrases and function to modify the head in terms of definiteness, item under question, or quantity.

DDeterminer, which includes articles (e.g., a, the) and demonstratives (e.g., this, that)
RDWh-determiner that is the relative determiner of a relative clause (e.g., what, whatever)
WDWh-determiner (e.g., which, what, whichever)
NUMNumeral (e.g., one, 1975)
QQuantifier (e.g., every, no)

Table 2.9: Tags for words that can be immediate components of a noun phrase

    Prototypical nouns can take one of two articles:

Articles for the singular head noun wish and the plural head noun wishes are seen in (2.35).

(2.35)
(D a) (N wish)                   (D the) (N wish)
(D some) (NS wishes)             (D the) (NS wishes)

2.6    Verbs

Verbs occur at clause levels of structure in the annotation. There are tags to subclassify verbs in accordance to their form:

2.6.1    Lexical verbs

Verbs can change in shape to show tense. For example, the verb SUPPORT in John supports Peter takes a third person present tense {s} inflection, while in John supported Peter it has a past tense {ed} inflection. A verb that has tense is called a finite verb.

    Tenseless forms of verbs are called nonfinite verbs, which are comprised of:

Note that participle forms are tenseless despite their full names! Infinitive forms occur in infinitive clauses, often preceded by the infinitive marker to (e.g., John happened to support Peter.). Present participles are used in the progressive construction (e.g., John is supporting Peter). Past participles are used in the perfect construction (e.g., John has supported Peter) and the passive construction (e.g., Peter is supported by John).

    The distinctions in verb forms just sketched are captured in the tags for lexical verbs of Table 2.10.

VBPpresent tense form of lexical verbs (e.g., reaches, supports, writes, sinks, puts, reach, support, write, sink, put)
VBDpast tense form of lexical verbs (e.g., reached, supported, wrote, sank, put)
VBinfinitive form of lexical verbs (e.g., reach, support, write, sink, put)
VAGpresent participle ({ing}) form of lexical verbs (used in the progressive construction) (e.g., reaching, supporting, writing, sinking, putting)
VVNpast participle ({ed}/{en}) form of lexical verbs (used in the perfect construction and the passive construction) (e.g., reached, supported, written, sunk, put)

Table 2.10: Tags for lexical verbs

    Table 2.11 further illustrates with examples the distinctions between the different lexical verb forms. This includes examples of irregular verbs that do not have a regular past tense inflection.

Tensed forms Tenseless forms
Tense Infinitive (VB) Participles
Present (VBP) Past (VBD) Present (VAG) Past (VVN)
3rd person singular Other
Regular reaches reach reached reach reaching reached
supports support supported support supporting supported
Irregular writes write wrote write writing written
sinks sink sank sink sinking sunk
puts put put put putting put

Table 2.11: Forms of lexical verb

2.6.2    HAVE

The forms of HAVE are tagged as in Table 2.12.

HVPpresent tense forms of the verb HAVE: have, 've, has, 's
HVDpast tense form of the verb HAVE: had, 'd
HVinfinitive form of the verb HAVE: have
HAGpresent participle form of the verb HAVE: having
HVNpast participle form of the verb HAVE: had

Table 2.12: Tags for HAVE

HAVE has the non-contracted inflections of Table 2.13.

Tensed forms Tenseless forms
Tense Infinitive (HV) Participles
Present (HVP) Past (HVD) Present (HAG) Past (HVN)
3rd person singular Other
has have had have having had

Table 2.13: Forms of HAVE

2.6.3    BE

The forms of BE are tagged as in Table 2.14.

BEPpresent tense forms of the verb BE: is, am, are, 'm, 're, 's
BEDpast tense forms of the verb BE: was, were
BEinfinitive form of the verb BE: be
BAGpresent participle form of the verb BE: being
BENpast participle form of the verb BE: been

Table 2.14: Tags for BE

Table 2.15 presents an overview of the eight different non-contracted forms of BE. This is the widest range of distinct forms for the same verb lexme in English, with extra person-number contrasts in the past and present tenses.

Tensed forms Tenseless forms
Tense Infinitive (BE) Participles
Present (BEP) Past (BED) Present (BAG) Past (BEN)
3rd person singular 1st person singular Other singular plural
is am are was were be being been

Table 2.15: Forms of BE

2.6.4    DO

The forms of DO are tagged as in Table 2.16.

DOPpresent tense forms of the verb DO: do, does, 's
DODpast tense form of the verb DO: did
DOinfinitive form of the verb DO: do
DAGpresent participle form of the verb DO: doing
DONpast participle form of the verb DO: done

Table 2.16: Tags for DO

DO has the the non-contracted inflections of Table 2.17.

Tensed forms Tenseless forms
Tense Infinitive (DO) Participles
Present (DOP) Past (DOD) Present (DAG) Past (DON)
3rd person singular Other
does do did do doing done

Table 2.17: Forms of DO

2.6.5    Modal verbs

Modal verbs express meanings such as certainty, ability, or obligation. The main modal verbs are WILL, WOULD, CAN, COULD, MAY, MIGHT, SHALL, SHOULD, MUST and OUGHT. A modal verb only has finite forms and has no suffixes (e.g., I sing — he sings, but I must — he must). Modal verbs are tagged as in Table 2.18.

MD;~cat_Vimodal auxiliary verb (e.g., will, would, can, could, 'll, 'd)
MD;~cat_Vtmodal catenative (ought, used)

Table 2.18: Tags for modal verbs


2.7    Subject indicating words

EXexistential there, i.e., there of the there is ... or there are ... construction co-occurring with an existential subject (NP-ESBJ)
PRO;_cleft_cleft it occuring as part of a cleft construction (so it was you that got them together)
PRO;_expletive_expletive it e.g., occuring in a weather construction (it's raining)
PRO;_provisional_provisional it occuring with extraposition (it bothered her that she probably would never know)

Table 2.19: Tags for subject indicating words


2.8    Other clause level words

Besides verbs, other clause level components are words with the tags of Table 2.20.

NEGnegative particle not
NEG;_clitic_negative clitic particle n't
TOInfinitive marker to
CONJ;_cl_discourse coordination (e.g., And, But)

Table 2.20: Tags for clause level components

    We can see some of these clause level components in the annotation of (2.36). This begins with there (EX) to create an existential construction, and includes the negative clitic particle n't (NEG;_clitic_). The IP-INF-CAT as selected complement of the existential verb (BED;~ex_cat_Vt; see section 8.2.5) includes infinitive marker to (TO).

(2.36)
(IP-MAT (EX There) (BED;~ex_cat_Vt were) (NEG;_clitic_ n<apos>t) 
  (NP-ESBJ (D any) (NS incidents)) 
  (IP-INF-CAT (TO to) (VB;~Ipr get) 
    (PP-CLR-LOC (P-ROLE in) 
      (NP (D the) (N way))))) 

    It is also possible for a word tagged RP to occur as a clause level component. The RP tag is used to mark adverbial particles (e.g., up, off, out) and was seen in section 2.4 as the tag for a word that can head an adverb phrase. When an RP tagged word occurs as a clause level component it is part of a phrasal verb, as in (2.37).

(2.37)
(IP-MAT (VBP;~phr_Vp hold) (RP on) 
  (NP-NIM-TMP (D a) (N second))) 

2.9    Connective words

So far we have considered words that serve as components of either phrases or clauses. There is a further class of words with the tags of Table 2.21 that serve as the means to connect phrases and clauses.

CONJCoordinating conjunction (e.g., and, or, but)
CThe complementizer that
WQMarker of indirect question (whether or if)
P-CONNSubordinating conjunction (e.g., although, when)
P-ROLERole preposition (e.g., in, of, under)

Table 2.21: Tags for connective words

When phrases and clauses are connected they are said to be COMPLEX.


2.10    Punctuation

Punctuation points, quotation marks, and brackets (‘.’ ‘?’ ‘!’ ‘:’ ‘;’ ‘,’ ‘-’ ‘(’ ‘)’ etc.) are treated as words for the purposes of word tagging with the tags of Table 2.22.

PUNCPunctuation: general separating mark — i.e., . , ! : ; - or ?
PULBPunctuation: left bracket — i.e., ( or [
PURBPunctuation: right bracket — i.e., ) or ]
PULQPunctuation: left quotation mark — i.e., or
PURQPunctuation: right quotation mark — i.e., or

Table 2.22: Tags for punctuation

This makes punctuation part of a sentence in its own right. When creating constituent structure, punctuation is placed as high as possible. For example, a full stop that ends a sentence is treated as the last constituent of the highest clause layer (IP/CP/FRAG).


2.11    Interjection, reaction signals, and formulaic expressions

Interjections, reaction signals, and formulaic expressions are treated as single words with the tags of Table 2.23. They have a high placement in structure, typically occurring as elements of clause or fragment layers.

INTJInterjection (e.g., aah, eh, ummmmm)
REACTReaction signal (e.g., good_grief, really, yes, wow)
FRMFormulaic expression (e.g., good_afternoon, you_see, thank_you)

Table 2.23: Tags for interjection, reaction signals, and formulaic expressions

(2.38)
(FRAG (INTJ Well) (PUNC ,) (REACT no) (PUNC ,) 
  (ADVP-MOD (ADV of_course)) 
  (NEG not)) 
(2.39)
(FRAG (FRM Thank_you) 
  (NP-MNR 
    (ADJP 
      (ADVP (ADV very)) 
      (ADJ much)))) 

2.12    Other tags

Tags for other possible elements of a parse are given in Table 2.24.

FOFormula
FWForeign word
LSList item (e.g., 1, a, i)
SYMSymbol

Table 2.24: Other tags