Features

In English, some tenses are a combination of tense and aspect. But as the aspect always depends on the tense we mark (verbs)[en-pos/VERB] only with the tense feature.

In English, the Case feature is only used for some personal pronouns. Pronouns can be either in the direct or oblique case.

Nom: direct

The following pronouns are in the direct case:

• I, you, he, she, it, we, they

Acc: oblique

The following pronouns are in the oblique case:

• me, you, him, her, it, us, them, myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves

Note that you and it can be either in the direct or oblique case. If they appear in subject position, they are marked as Nom, while if they appear in object position or if they have a prepositional case marker, they are marked as Acc.

Reflexive pronouns only have this feature if they are used in object position and not if they are used as intensive pronouns.

In English, the Definite feature is marked only on the determiners the, a, and an.

Ind: indefinite

• a, an

Def: definite

• the

In English, Gender is marked only on 3rd-person personal pronouns.

Masc: masculine gender

• he, his, him, himself

Fem: feminine gender

• she, her, hers, herself

Neut: neuter gender

• it, its, itself

In English, Mood is a feature of finite verbs. It is used to express modality and further subclassify finite verb forms.

Ind: indicative

The indicative can be considered the default mood. A verb in indicative merely states that something happens, has happened or will happen, without adding any attitude of the speaker.

Examples

• He makes a sandwich.

Imp: imperative

The speaker uses imperative to order or ask the addressee to do the action of the verb.

Examples

• Make a sandwich!

Sub: subjunctive

The subjunctive mood is used under certain circumstances in subordinate clauses, typically for actions that are subjective or otherwise uncertain such as expressing an opinion or describing one’s state of mind. It is also used to make statements contrary to fact.

• I suggest that he see a doctor.
• If I were rich…

(Note that there is currently no reliable way of identifying subjunctive verbs in an automatic way and therefore we currently also mark present subjunctive verbs as infinitives and past subjunctive verbs as past indicative verbs.)

In English, Number is a feature of nouns and other parts of speech that mark agreement with nouns, i.e. personal pronouns, verbs, and some determiners.

Sing: singular

A singular noun denotes one person, animal or thing. Every noun with the PTB tag NN or NNP is marked with this feature.

Examples:

• an apple, a train

Pronouns that refer to a single person, an animal or a thing are also marked with this feature.

• I, me, my, myself, he, his, him, himself, she, her, hers, herself, it, its, itself

We also mark all verbs with the PTB tag VBZ with this feature.

Examples:

• she does
• he walks

Further, we mark inflections of be that can only have a singular noun or pronoun in subject position with this feature.

• am, is, was

Demonstrative determiners of singular nouns and demonstrative pronouns that refer to singular nouns are also marked with this feature.

• this, that

Plur: plural

A plural noun denotes several persons, animals or things. Every noun with the PTB tag NNS or NNPS is marked with this feature.

Examples:

• several apples, two trains

Pronouns that refer to a single person, an animal or a thing are also marked with this feature.

• we, us, our, ours, ourselves, yourselves, they, them, their, theirs, themselves

Demonstrative determiners of plural nouns and demonstrative pronouns that refer to plural nouns are also marked with this feature.

• these, those

We currently don’t mark plurale tantum or collective/mass nouns.

In English, Person is a feature of personal and possessive pronouns, and of some verbs to mark agreement with its subject.

1: first person

In singular, the first person refers just to the speaker / author. In plural, it must include the speaker and one or more additional persons.

This feature is only used for pronouns and two inflections of be:

• am, was (if I is its subject), I, we, me, us, my, mine, our, ours, myself, ourselves

2: second person

In singular, the second person refers to the addressee of the utterance / text. In plural, it may mean several addressees and optionally some third persons too.

This feature is only used for pronouns:

• you, your, yours, yourself, yourselves

3: second person

The third person refers to one or more persons that are neither speakers nor addressees.

It is used for the following pronouns:

• he, she, it, they, him, her, them, his, hers, their, theirs, himself, herself, itself, themselves

Additionally, it is used for verbs that require a third person singular subject which have the PTB tag VBZ.

Examples:

• he walks
• she is

In English, Poss is a Boolean feature of pronouns. It tells whether the word is possessive.

Yes: it is possesive

The following English pronouns have this feature:

• my, mine, your, yours, his, her (if it has the PTB tag PRP$), hers, its, our, ours, their, theirs, whose

Note that there is no No value. If the word is not possessive, the Poss feature will just not be mentioned in the FEAT column.

In English, this feature applies to pronouns, determiners and pronominal adverbs.

Prs: personal or possessive personal pronoun or determiner

See also the Poss feature that distinguishes normal personal pronouns from possessives. Note that Prs also includes reflexive personal/possessive pronouns.

The following pronouns have this feature:

• I, you, he, she, it, we, they, my, your, his, her, its, our, their, mine, yours, hers, ours, theirs, me, him, us, them, myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, youselves, theirselves

Art: article

Article is a special case of determiner that bears the feature of definiteness.

In English, the following three determiners have this feature:

• a, an, the

Int: interrogative pronoun, determiner or adverb

Note that the possessive interrogative determiner (whose) can be distinguished by the Poss feature.

In English, all words with the PTB tag WDT, WP, WP$ or WRB have this feature unless they mark the beginning of a relative clause.

Examples:

• Which one should I get?
• Who was elected president?
• Whose car is this?
• How old is he?

Rel: relative pronoun or determiner

All pronouns and determiners that mark the beginning of a relative clause have this feature.

Examples:

• The book that I read
• The book which she bought
• The book whose author was arrested

Dem: demonstrative determiner or adverb

The following determiners and adverbs have this feature:

• this, that, those, these, here, there

Note that that only has this feature when it is being used as a demonstrative determiner. If it is used to mark the beginning of a clausal complement or a relative clause it does not have this feature.

In English, Reflex is a feature of pronouns. It tells whether the word is reflexive, i.e. refers to the subject of its clause.

Yes: it is reflexive

The following English pronouns have this feature:

• myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves

Note that English reflexive pronouns can also be used as intensive pronouns, e.g. She herself bought a book. The above mentioned pronouns only have this feature if they are used as reflexive pronouns.

In English, Tense is a feature of verbs that specifies the time when the action took / takes / will take place, in relation to the current moment or to another action in the utterance.

Pres: present tense

The present tense denotes actions that are happening right now or that usually happen. All verbs with the PTB tag VBP or VBZ have this feature. Subjunctives with the PTB tag VB also have this feature.

Examples:

• She goes home.
• I suggest that he see a doctor.

Past: past tense

The past tense denotes actions that happened before the current moment. All verbs with the PTB tag VBD and VBN have this feature.

Examples:

• She went home.

Note that the pluperfect and future tenses in English are constructed periphrastically. For example, I had been there is past perfect (pluperfect) tense, formed periphrastically by the simple past tense of the auxiliary to have and the past participle of the main verb to be. The auxiliary will be tagged VerbForm=Fin|Mood=Ind|Tense=Past and the participle will have VerbForm=Part|Tense=Past; none of the two will have Tense=Pqp.

In English, VerbForm is a feature of verbs.

Fin: finite verb

Rule of thumb: if it has non-empty Mood, it is finite. English verbs with the PTB tag VBZ, VBD or VBP and modals with the PTB tag MD have this feature. Further, verbs with the PTB tag VB have this feature if they don’t have an auxiliary or modal verb attached to it.

Examples:

• I do, she has
• Read the book!

Inf: infinitive

Infinitive is the citation form of verbs in many languages. Infinitives may be used together with auxiliaries to form periphrastic tenses (e.g. future tense I will sit in a plane), they appear as arguments of modal verbs etc. English verbs with the PTB tag VB have this feature if they have an auxiliary or modal verb or the inifinitval to attached to it.

Examples:

• I have to leave.

Part: participle

Participle is a non-finite verb form that shares properties of verbs and adjectives. It is used to form various periphrastic verb forms such as complex tenses and passives. In English, all words with the PTB tag VBD have this feature. Further, words with the PTB tag VBG can also have this feature if they are preceded by an inflection of to be.

Examples:

• He could have been prepared if he had forseen it.
• I will be driving home.

Ger: gerund

Gerund is a non-finite verb form that shares properties of verbs and nouns. In English, all words with the PTB tag VBG have this feature if they are not preceded by an inflection of to be.

Examples:

• I look forward to seeing you.
• She turns a blind eye to my being late.

In English, Voice is a feature of some verbs. It is only used to distinguish past participles from passive verbs which both have the PTB tag VBN.

Pass: passsive

All verbs with the PTB tag VBN that have a passive auxiliary have this feature.

Examples:

• Kennedy was killed.
• He got shot.