NCHLT: Sesotho 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 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 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

As for the actual tagging, an additional first level of tagging is envisaged. On this level, linguistic words will be tagged. For Northern Sotho, this implies that the four orthographic units ke + a + mo + rata will be tagged as V, since together they constitute a linguistic verb. <Sesotho adaptation required here>

The tagset currently distinguishes 29 categories and different levels of annotation. The first part of the tag gives a general indication of the nature of the unit in question. These are as follows:

1. $ = Punctuation

2. ABBR = abbreviation

3. ADJ = adjective

4. ADV = adverb

5. ASP = aspectual marker

6. AUX = auxilliary verb

7. CCOP = class-indicating copulative subject concord

8. CDEM = class-indicating demonstrative

9. CDEMCOP = class-indicating demonstrative copulative

10. CN = class-indicating nominal prefix

11. CO = class-indicating object concord

12. CPOSS = class-indicating possessive concord

13. CS = class-indicating subject concord

14. ENUM = enumerative

15. IDEO = ideophone

16. INT = interjection

17. JUNC = conjunction

18. MNEG = negative morpheme

19. N = noun

20. NPP = place and brand name

21. NUM = numerative

22. PART = particle

23. PROEMP = emphatic pronoun

24. PROPOSS = possessive pronoun

25. PROQUANT = quantitative pronoun

26. QUE = question word

27. TENSE = tense marker

28. V = verbal

29. VCOP = copulative verb

As we envisage going deeper into morphological analysis, we also plan for the implementation of the following tags:

AS = adjectival stem

CA = class indicating adjectival prefix

NS = noun stem

NSuf = nominal suffix

VEnd = verbal ending

VExt = verbal extension

VR = verb root

1. PUNCTUATION

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

2. ABBREVIATION

All abbreviations are tagged as ABBR.

3. ADJECTIVE

The following tags are used:

Level 1: ADJ01-14, ADJLOC

Notes:

• The tag ADJ is used to tag linguistic units which consist of a noun class prefix and an adjective stem

Examples:

se seholo ADJ07

4. ADVERB

The following tags are used:

Level 1: ADV

Level 2: ADV_loc

Notes:

• Currently, no further specification in terms of the features time and manner is indicated, but adverbs of place / indicating locality are tagged on the second level as _loc.
• Nouns belonging to the locative classes are tagged as NLOC, although their function is that of adverb.
• Nouns to which a locative suffix has been affixed are tagged as nouns although their function is that of adverb. See 19 below.

Examples:

ruri ADV_nil

haModjadji ADV_loc

5. ASPECTUAL MARKER

The following tags are used:

Level 1: ASP

Level 2: ASP_pot, ASP_prog

Note:

The deficient verbs forms, also called deficient auxiliary verb forms, -mo, -no, yo and -tšo are tagged as ASP. <Sesotho examples required here>

• On the second level of annotation the progressive morpheme sa and the potential morpheme ka are tagged as ASP_prog and ASP_pot respectively.

Examples:

ba sa bua	ASP_prog
ba ka bua	ASP_pot

6. AUXILLIARY

The following tag is used:

Level 1: AUX

Notes:

• The tag AUX is used to tag what is generally termed auxilliary verb stems.

Examples:

ba se ba fihlile	AUX
o ile bua jwalo	AUX

7. [CLASS-INDICATING] COPULATIVE SUBJECT CONCORD

The following tags are used:

Level 1: CCOP01-10, CCOP14-15, CCOPLOC, CCOPPERS

Level 2: CCOPPERS_1sg, CCOPPERS_1pl, CCOPPERS_2sg, CCOPPERS_2pl

Notes:

• Noun class information and information on the person number are included in the tag.

Examples:

le nna ke hona	CCOPPERS_1sg
borotho bo teng	CCOP14_nil
re toropong	CCOPPERS_1pl

8. [CLASS-INDICATING] DEMONSTRATIVES

The followings tags are used:

CDEM01-10, 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 are tagged as CDEMLOC
• The demonstratives of classes 1a and 2b are tagged as CDEM01 and CDEM02 respectively.

Examples:

batho bao CDEM02

sefate seo CDEM07

hona moo CDEMLOC

9. [CLASS-INDICATING] COPULATIVE DEMONSTRATIVES

The followings tags are used:

Level 1: CDEMCOP

Level 2: CDEMCOP_01-10, CDEMCOP_14-15, CDEMCOP_loc

Notes:

• Currently, no distinction is made for the different ‘positions’ or ‘distances’ of the copulative demonstratives. Only noun class information is included in the tag.
• The copulative demonstratives of the locative classes are tagged as CDEMCOP_loc
• The copulative demonstratives of classes 1a and 2b are tagged as CDEMCOP_01 and CDEMCOP_02 respectively.

Examples:

sedi CDEMCOP_08

ke sela CDEMCOP_loc

10. [CLASS-INDICATING] NOMINAL PREFIX

11. [CLASS-INDICATING] OBJECT CONCORD

The following tags are used:

Level 1: CO01-10, CO14-15, COLOC, COPERS

Level 2: COPERS_1pl, COPERS_2pl, COPERS_2sg

Notes:

• Noun class information is included in the tag. Tags for first and second person distinguish between singular and plural.
• Object concords that are written conjunctively to the verb stem (e.g. object concord 1st person singular, object concord of class 1 mo- preceding a verb stem with initial consonant b-) are not at this stage tagged.
• The object concords of classes 1a and 2b are tagged as CO01 and CO02 respectively.
• Object concords of the locative classes are tagged as COLOC.

Examples:

Ba re thusitse	COPERS_1pl
Re a ho batla	COPERS_2sg
Ke a a rata	CO06
Ba tlo se reka	CO07

12. [CLASS-INDICATING] POSSESSIVE CONCORD

The following tags are used:

Level 1: CPOSS01-10, 14-15, CPOSSLOC

Notes:

• The possessive concords of classes 1a and 2b are tagged as CPOSS01 and CPOSS02 respectively.

Examples:

bana ba hae	CPOSS02
diaparo tsa bana	CPOSS08
tlasa tafole <insert possessive concord>	CPOSSLOC

13. [CLASS-INDICATING] SUBJECT CONCORD

The following tags are used:

Level 1: CS01-10, CS14-15, CSLOC, CSINDEF, CSNEUT, CSPERS

Level 2: CSPERS_1sg, CSPERS_1pl, CSPERS_2sg, CSPERS_2pl

Notes:

• No distinction is currently made between the unmarked form of the subject concord, and the co-called ‘consecutive form’ thereof.
• The tag CSINDEF is used to tag the indefinite subject concord go / hwa
• The tag CSNEUT is used to tag the neutral subject concord e / ya, which is inter alia often found in identifying copulatives.
• Subject concords of the locative classes are tagged CSLOC.
• Subject concord of nouns in classes 1a and 2b are tagged as CN01 and CN02 respectively.

Examples:

se fihlile	CS07
fatse ho a bata	CSLOC
ho a tjhesa	CSINDEF
e ne e le mariha	CSNEUT
o a tshwenya	CSPERS_2sg
ra qala mosebetsi	CSPERS_1pl

14. ENUMERATIVE

The following tag is used:

Level 1: ENUM

Note:

• Linguistic units generally termed enumerative stems in grammars are tagged as ENUM

Examples:

mokgwa o sele

ENUM

15. IDEOPHONE

The following tag is used:

Level 1: IDEO

Examples:

thwa	IDEO
Pha	IDEO

16. INTERJECTION

The following tag is used:

Level 1: INT

Level 2: INT_neg

Notes:

• The tag INT_neg is used to tag the negative interjection aowa.

Examples:

A e!

INT_neg

17. CONJUNCTION

The following tag is used:

Level 1: JUNC

Notes:

• Conjunctions that consist of multi-word units are not at this stage tagged as JUNC, the tokens making up the conjunctions are tagged separately. Thus e.g. le ha ‘although’ would not be tagged as JUNC, but as le [TAG] and ha [TAG].

Examples:

hore

JUNC

18. NEGATIVE MORPHEME

The following tag is used:

Level 1: MNEG

Notes:

• Negative morphemes ha, sa and se are tagged as MNEG
• The negative form of the identifying copula ke, i.e. ha se is tagged as ha MNEG se VCOP_neg

Examples:

ha ba bue	MNEG
ba sa bue	MNEG
hore ba se bue	MNEG

19. NOUN

The following tags are used:

Level 1: N01-10, N01a, N02b, N14, NLOC

Level 2: _aug, _dim, _loc, _name

Notes:

• Although 17 noun classes plus two subclasses (1a and 2b) are distinguished for Sesotho, only 14 noun tags are used. All locative classes (16, 17, 18, N- and ga-) are tagged as NLOC.
• Since nouns belonging to the so-called infinitive class 15 (hoja) consist of two orthographically distinct units, these are tagged separately; no tag for nouns belonging to class 15 (N15) is therefore used.
• Apart from containing information on noun class numbers, tags for nouns 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 is indicated by _nil.
• 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.
• Names of people are tagged as N01a / N02b_name

Examples:

Mpho	N09_nil
Mpho	N01a_name
Mphonyana	N09_dim
Mphong	N09_loc
Tauhadi	N09_aug
sefatenyaneng	N03_dim_loc
fatse	NLOC

20. PLACE AND BRAND NAMES

The following tag is used:

Level 1: NPP

Level 2: NPP_name, NPP_brand

Notes:

• Place names are tagged as NPP_place, brand names as NPP_brand

Examples:

polokwane	NPP_place
coke	NPP_brand

21. NUMERATIVE

The following tag is used:

NUM

Note:

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

22. PARTICLE

The following tags are used:

Level 1: PART

Level 2: PART_cop, PART_agen, PART_hort, PART_loc, PRT_que, PART_temp, PART_ins, PART_con

Notes:

• The category ‘particle’ is a contentious one and is not recognized by all grammarians. The term ‘prefix’ is often used to refer to members of this category.
• The category ‘particle’ is a closed category.
• The tag PART_cop is used for the copulative particle ke ‘it/he/she is, they are’. The negative form of this copula, ha se is tagged as ha MNEG, se VCOP_neg.
• The agentive particle ke found following after passive verbs is tagged as PART_agen.
• The hortative particle a is tagged as PART_hort.
• Five locative particles (PART_loc) are distinguished for Southern Sotho, i.e. ka, mo, ho and ha.
• The question particles (PART_que) are a, na, ana, naa.
• The temporal particle (PART_temp) is used to indicate a point in time.
• The instrumental particle (PART_ins) is ka.
• The connective particle le which is typically found following after the copulative verb stem –na is tagged PART_con

Examples:

ke mariha	PART_cop
e bonwa ke dintja	PART_agen
a re bale	PART_hort
ka kua toropong	PART_loc
na ba tlile?	PART_que
ka Moqebelo	PART_temp
ka thipa	PART_ins
ho na le kotsi	PART_con

23. EMPHATIC PRONOUN

The following tags are used:

Level 1: PROEMP01-10, 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
Rona	PROEMPPERS_1pl
hona	PROEMPLOC
dibuka tsona	PROEMP10
ka yona	PROEMP09

24. POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS

The following tags are used:

Level 1: PROPOSS01-10, PROPOSS14-15, PROPOSSLOC, PROPOSSPERS

Level 2: PROPOSSPERS_1sg, PROPOSSPERS_1pl, PROPOSSPERS_2sg, PROPOSSPERS_2pl

Notes:

• Even though the possessive pronouns of the noun classes of Northern Sotho are morphologically identical to the emphatic pronouns, their status as possessive pronouns is signalled by the possessive concord preceding them.
• Although the status of forms such as haborona, habobona and habolena is uncertain, these forms are tagged as PROPOSSPERS_1pl, PROPOSS02 and PROPOSSPERS_2pl respectively, since they are almost always preceded by a possessive concord.

Examples:

bana ba gagwe	PROPOSS01
bana ba geso	PROPOSSPERS_1pl
bana ba rena	PROPOSSPERS_1pl
maoto a tsona	PROPOSS10
dikolo tsa gona	PROPOSSLOC

25. QUANTITATIVE PRONOUNS

The following tags are used:

PROQUANT01 – 10, 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:

bana bohle	PROQUANT02
tsohle di fedile	PROQUANT10
rena bohle	PROQUANT02

26. QUESTION WORDS

The following tags are used:

Level 1: QUE

Level 2: QUE_N01a, QUE_N02b, QUE_loc, QUE_time, QUE_man, QUE_01 – 10, 14 – 15

Notes:

• In some grammars, the items jwang, neng and kae are described as adverbs, but here they are tagged as question words, asking about manner (_man), time (_time) and place (_loc) (locality) respectively.
• Since the question words mang and bomang can generate agreement of classes 1a and 2b respectively, they are tagged as QUE_N01a and QUE_N02b respectively.
• Information on class numbers is included in the tag for all forms with –fe.
• Note that when –kae is used with the meaning of ‘how many / much’ it appears in an adjectival construction and is consequently tagged as ADJ. Only when it is used with the meaning of ‘where’ is it tagged as QUE_loc.
• Note that when –jwang is used with the meaning of ‘what kind of’ it appears in an adjectival construction and is consequently tagged as ADJ. Only when it is used with the meaning of ‘how’ is it tagged as QUE_man.

Examples:

ba fihlile neng?	QUE_time
ba dula kae?	QUE_loc
batho bafe	QUE_02
o batla mang?	QUE_N01a
o rekile eng?	QUE_nil

27. TENSE MARKER

The following tags are used:

Level 1: TENSE

Level 2: TENSE_fut, TENSE_pres, TENSE_past

Notes:

• The future tense morphemes –tlo /-tla are tagged as TENSE_fut.
• When the morpheme ka appears together with the negative morpheme se it functions as a marker of the future tense, and in such cases is marked as TENSE_fut.
• The past tense morpheme –a only occurs in a specific negative form of the so-called past tense and is the only past tense morpheme in Northern Sotho. It is tagged as TENSE_past.
• The so-called present tense morpheme –a which appears only in (some) present tense verbs is marked as TENSE_pres.

Examples: <check for correctness>

ba tlo bua	TENSE_fut
ba a bua	TENSE_pres
ba ka se bua	TENSE_fut
ha ba a bua	TENSE_neg

28. VERBAL

The following tag is used:

Level 1: V

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 conjuntively to the verb root or stem are not at this stage tagged separately.
• The degree of transitivity of verbs is indicated as _tr (transitive), _itr (intransitive), _dtr (double transitive) on level 2.
• Categories such as tense, mood and aspect are not indicated, since these features cannot be assigned automatically by computational means.

Examples:

mmotsa	V_tr
Ithuta	V_tr
ntshwenya	V_tr
Etsetsa	V_dtr
Eja	V_tr

29. COPULATIVE VERB

The following tag is used:

Level 1: VCOP

Level 2: VCOP_neg

Notes:

• The tag VCOP 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 VCOP_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:

ke na le	VCOP_nil
h e le mariha <check for correctness>	VCOP_nil
ha a le siko	VCOP_neg
ya ba selemo	VCOP_nil

Working Tagset

ADJ01	Adjective
ADJ02	Adjective
ADJ03	Adjective
ADJ04	Adjective
ADJ05	Adjective
ADJ06	Adjective
ADJ07	Adjective
ADJ08	Adjective
ADJ09	Adjective
ADJ10	Adjective
ADJ14	Adjective
ADJC01	Adjective Concord
ADJC02	Adjective Concord
ADJC03	Adjective Concord
ADJC04	Adjective Concord
ADJC05	Adjective Concord
ADJC06	Adjective Concord
ADJC07	Adjective Concord
ADJC08	Adjective Concord
ADJC09	Adjective Concord
ADJC10	Adjective Concord
ADJC15	Adjective Concord
ADJLOC	Adjective
ADJ15	Adjective
ADV	Adverb
CCOP07	Copulative concord
CCOP09	Copulative concord
CCOP09	Copulative concord
CCOP09	Copulative concord
CCOP10	Copulative concord
CCOP10	Copulative concord
CCOP10	Copulative concord
CCOPPERS	Copulative concord
CD01	Demonstrative
CD02	Demonstrative
CD03	Demonstrative
CD04	Demonstrative
CD05	Demonstrative
CD06	Demonstrative
CD07	Demonstrative
CD08	Demonstrative
CD09	Demonstrative
CD10	Demonstrative
CD14	Demonstrative
CD15	Demonstrative
CD17	Demonstrative
CD18	Demonstrative
CDLOC	Demonstrative
CN	Infinitive class prefix
CO01	Object concord
CO02	Object concord
CO03	Object concord
CO04	Object concord
CO05	Object concord
CO06	Object concord
CO07	Object concord
CO08	Object concord
CO09	Object concord
CO10	Object concord
CO14	Object concord
CO15	Object concord
COLOC	Object concord
CONJ	Conjunctive
COPERS	Object concord
CPOSS01	Possessive concord
CPOSS02	Possessive concord
CPOSS03	Possessive concord
CPOSS04	Possessive concord
CPOSS05	Possessive concord
CPOSS06	Possessive concord
CPOSS07	Possessive concord
CPOSS08	Possessive concord
CPOSS09	Possessive concord
CPOSS10	Possessive concord
CPOSS14	Possessive concord
CPOSS15	Possessive concord
CPOSSLOC	Possessive concord
CS01	Subject concord
CS02	Subject concord
CS03	Subject concord
CS04	Subject concord
CS05	Subject concord
CS06	Subject concord
CS07	Subject concord
CS08	Subject concord
CS09	Subject concord
CS10	Subject concord
CS14	Subject concord
CS15	Subject concord
CSINDEF	Subject concord
CSLOC	Subject concord
CSNEUT	Subject concord
CSPERS	Subject concord
ENUM	Enumerative
IDEO	Idiophone
INF	Infinitive class prefix
INT	Interjection
MORPHFUT	Future
MNEG	Negative morpheme
MORPHPER	Progressive
MORPHPOT	Potential
MORPHPRES	Present tense marker
N01	Noun
N01a	Noun
N02	Noun
N02b	Noun
N03	Noun
N04	Noun
N05	Noun
N06	Noun
N07	Noun
N08	Noun
N09	Noun
N10	Noun
N14	Noun
N16	Noun
N17	Noun
N18	Noun
NLOC	Noun
PART	Particle
PROEMP01	Emphatic pronoun
PROEMP02	Emphatic pronoun
PROEMP03	Emphatic pronoun
PROEMP04	Emphatic pronoun
PROEMP05	Emphatic pronoun
PROEMP06	Emphatic pronoun
PROEMP07	Emphatic pronoun
PROEMP08	Emphatic pronoun
PROEMP09	Emphatic pronoun
PROEMP10	Emphatic pronoun
PROEMP14	Emphatic pronoun
PROEMP15	Emphatic pronoun
PROEMPLOC	Emphatic pronoun
PROEMPPERS	Emphatic pronoun
PROPOSS02	Possessive pronoun
PROPOSS03	Possessive pronoun
PROPOSS04	Possessive pronoun
PROPOSS05	Possessive pronoun
PROPOSS06	Possessive pronoun
PROPOSS07	Possessive pronoun
PROPOSS08	Possessive pronoun
PROPOSS09	Possessive pronoun
PROPOSS10	Possessive pronoun
PROPOSS14	Possessive pronoun
PROPOSSPERS	Possessive pronoun
PROQUANT01	Quantitative pronoun
PROQUANT02	Quantitative pronoun
PROQUANT03	Quantitative pronoun
PROQUANT04	Quantitative pronoun
PROQUANT05	Quantitative pronoun
PROQUANT06	Quantitative pronoun
PROQUANT07	Quantitative pronoun
PROQUANT08	Quantitative pronoun
PROQUANT09	Quantitative pronoun
PROQUANT10	Quantitative pronoun
PROQUANT14	Quantitative pronoun
PROQUANT15	Quantitative pronoun
PROQUANT17	Quantitative pronoun
PROQUANTLOC	Quantitative pronoun
QUE	Question word
RO
RS
RV
V	Verb
VAUX	Auxiliary verb
VCOP	Copulative verb
ZE
ZM
ZPL
ZPR