A tagset is a list of part-of-speech tags (POS tags for short), i.e. labels used to indicate the part of speech and sometimes also other grammatical categories (case, tense etc.) of each token in a text corpus.

English CLAWS part-of-speech tagset version 7 is available in English corpora annotated by the tool using CLAWS (the Constituent Likelihood Automatic Word-tagging System) developed by University Centre for Computer Corpus Research on Language at Lancaster University.

The Constituent Likelihood Automatic Word-tagging System abbreviated CLAWS was developed by UCREL at Lancaster University. This is the 7th version of used tagset.

An Example of a tag in the CQL concordance search box: [tag="VBD."] finds all past forms of verb “be”: was, were  (note: please make sure that you use straight double quotation marks)

TAGSET

POS Tag Description
APPGE possessive pronoun, pre-nominal (e.g. my, your, our)
AT article (e.g. the, no)
AT1 singular article (e.g. a, an, every)
BCL before-clause marker (e.g. in order (that),in order (to))
CC coordinating conjunction (e.g. and, or)
CCB adversative coordinating conjunction ( but)
CS subordinating conjunction (e.g. if, because, unless, so, for)
CSA as (as conjunction)
CSN than (as conjunction)
CST that (as conjunction)
CSW whether (as conjunction)
DA after-determiner or post-determiner capable of pronominal function (e.g. such, former, same)
DA1 singular after-determiner (e.g. little, much)
DA2 plural after-determiner (e.g. few, several, many)
DAR comparative after-determiner (e.g. more, less, fewer)
DAT superlative after-determiner (e.g. most, least, fewest)
DB before determiner or pre-determiner capable of pronominal function (all, half)
DB2 plural before-determiner ( both)
DD determiner (capable of pronominal function) (e.g any, some)
DD1 singular determiner (e.g. this, that, another)
DD2 plural determiner ( these,those)
DDQ wh-determiner (which, what)
DDQGE wh-determiner, genitive (whose)
DDQV wh-ever determiner, (whichever, whatever)
EX existential there
FO formula
FU unclassified word
FW foreign word
GE germanic genitive marker – (‘ or’s)
IF for (as preposition)
II general preposition
IO of (as preposition)
IW with, without (as prepositions)
JJ general adjective
JJR general comparative adjective (e.g. older, better, stronger)
JJT general superlative adjective (e.g. oldest, best, strongest)
JK catenative adjective (able in be able to, willing in be willing to)
MC cardinal number,neutral for number (two, three..)
MC1 singular cardinal number (one)
MC2 plural cardinal number (e.g. sixes, sevens)
MCGE genitive cardinal number, neutral for number (two’s, 100’s)
MCMC hyphenated number (40-50, 1770-1827)
MD ordinal number (e.g. first, second, next, last)
MF fraction, neutral for number (e.g. quarters, two-thirds)
ND1 singular noun of direction (e.g. north, southeast)
NN common noun, neutral for number (e.g. sheep, cod, headquarters)
NN1 singular common noun (e.g. book, girl)
NN2 plural common noun (e.g. books, girls)
NNA following noun of title (e.g. M.A.)
NNB preceding noun of title (e.g. Mr., Prof.)
NNL1 singular locative noun (e.g. Island, Street)
NNL2 plural locative noun (e.g. Islands, Streets)
NNO numeral noun, neutral for number (e.g. dozen, hundred)
NNO2 numeral noun, plural (e.g. hundreds, thousands)
NNT1 temporal noun, singular (e.g. day, week, year)
NNT2 temporal noun, plural (e.g. days, weeks, years)
NNU unit of measurement, neutral for number (e.g. in, cc)
NNU1 singular unit of measurement (e.g. inch, centimetre)
NNU2 plural unit of measurement (e.g. ins., feet)
NP proper noun, neutral for number (e.g. IBM, Andes)
NP1 singular proper noun (e.g. London, Jane, Frederick)
NP2 plural proper noun (e.g. Browns, Reagans, Koreas)
NPD1 singular weekday noun (e.g. Sunday)
NPD2 plural weekday noun (e.g. Sundays)
NPM1 singular month noun (e.g. October)
NPM2 plural month noun (e.g. Octobers)
PN indefinite pronoun, neutral for number (none)
PN1 indefinite pronoun, singular (e.g. anyone, everything, nobody, one)
PNQO objective wh-pronoun (whom)
PNQS subjective wh-pronoun (who)
PNQV wh-ever pronoun (whoever)
PNX1 reflexive indefinite pronoun (oneself)
PPGE nominal possessive personal pronoun (e.g. mine, yours)
PPH1 3rd person sing. neuter personal pronoun (it)
PPHO1 3rd person sing. objective personal pronoun (him, her)
PPHO2 3rd person plural objective personal pronoun (them)
PPHS1 3rd person sing. subjective personal pronoun (he, she)
PPHS2 3rd person plural subjective personal pronoun (they)
PPIO1 1st person sing. objective personal pronoun (me)
PPIO2 1st person plural objective personal pronoun (us)
PPIS1 1st person sing. subjective personal pronoun (I)
PPIS2 1st person plural subjective personal pronoun (we)
PPX1 singular reflexive personal pronoun (e.g. yourself, itself)
PPX2 plural reflexive personal pronoun (e.g. yourselves, themselves)
PPY 2nd person personal pronoun (you)
RA adverb, after nominal head (e.g. else, galore)
REX adverb introducing appositional constructions (namely, e.g.)
RG degree adverb (very, so, too)
RGQ wh- degree adverb (how)
RGQV wh-ever degree adverb (however)
RGR comparative degree adverb (more, less)
RGT superlative degree adverb (most, least)
RL locative adverb (e.g. alongside, forward)
RP prep. adverb, particle (e.g about, in)
RPK prep. adv., catenative (about in be about to)
RR general adverb
RRQ wh- general adverb (where, when, why, how)
RRQV wh-ever general adverb (wherever, whenever)
RRR comparative general adverb (e.g. better, longer)
RRT superlative general adverb (e.g. best, longest)
RT quasi-nominal adverb of time (e.g. now, tomorrow)
TO infinitive marker (to)
UH interjection (e.g. oh, yes, um)
VB0 be, base form (finite i.e. imperative, subjunctive)
VBDR were
VBDZ was
VBG being
VBI be, infinitive (To be or not… It will be ..)
VBM am
VBN been
VBR are
VBZ is
VD0 do, base form (finite)
VDD did
VDG doing
VDI do, infinitive (I may do… To do…)
VDN done
VDZ does
VH0 have, base form (finite)
VHD had (past tense)
VHG having
VHI have, infinitive
VHN had (past participle)
VHZ has
VM modal auxiliary (can, will, would, etc.)
VMK modal catenative (ought, used)
VV0 base form of lexical verb (e.g. give, work)
VVD past tense of lexical verb (e.g. gave, worked)
VVG -ing participle of lexical verb (e.g. giving, working)
VVGK -ing participle catenative (going in be going to)
VVI infinitive (e.g. to give… It will work…)
VVN past participle of lexical verb (e.g. given, worked)
VVNK past participle catenative (e.g. bound in be bound to)
VVZ -s form of lexical verb (e.g. gives, works)
XX not, n’t
ZZ1 singular letter of the alphabet (e.g. A,b)
ZZ2 plural letter of the alphabet (e.g. A’s, b’s)

NOTE: “DITTO TAGS”

Any of the tags listed above may, in theory, be modified by the addition of a pair of numbers to it: eg. DD21, DD22 This signifies that the tag occurs as part of a sequence of similar tags, representing a sequence of words which for grammatical purposes are treated as a single unit. For example the expression in terms of is treated as a single preposition, receiving the tags:

		 in_II31 terms_II32 of_II33 

The first of the two digits indicates the number of words/tags in the sequence, and the second digit the position of each word within that sequence.

Such ditto tags are not included in the lexicon, but are assigned automatically by a program called IDIOMTAG which looks for a range of multi-word sequences included in the idiomlist. The following sample entries from the idiomlist show that syntactic ambiguity is taken into account, and also that, depending on the context, ditto tags may or may not be required for a particular word sequence:

		at_RR21 length_RR22
		a_DD21/RR21 lot_DD22/RR22
		in_CS21/II that_CS22/DD1

Source: http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/claws7tags.html

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