Features

The feature Definite is marked to identify definite and indefinite articles.

Ind: indefinite

Examples

• un cane “a dog”
• una bella giornata “a good day”

Def: definite

Examples

• il cane “the dog”
• gli altri “others”

Red: reduced

Not used.

Com: complex

Not used.

Degree of comparison is used as an inflectional feature of some adjectives and adverbs.

Pos: positive, first degree

Not used.

Cmp: comparative, second degree

The quality of one object is compared to the same quality of another object.

Examples

• Luigi è migliore di me “Luigi is better than me”
• Il prezzo è inferiore “The price is lower”

Sup: superlative, third degree

The quality of one object is compared to the same quality of all other objects within a set.

Italian does not seem to have single words for ‘relative’ superlatives, such as [en] “youngest”. One would say instead:

• Luigi è il più giovane “Luigi is the most young”

Abs: absolute superlative

The quality of the given object is so strong that there is hardly any other object exceeding it. The quality is not actually compared to any particular set of objects.

Examples

• bellissimo, massimo, malissimo, ottimo “very beatiful”, “maximum”, “very badly”, “optimum”

The NumType feature applies to:

• u-pos/NUM: numerals
• u-pos/ADJ: adjectives, e.g. ordinal numerals

Card: cardinal number or corresponding word

Examples

• uno “one”, due “two”, tre “three”

Ord: ordinal number or corresponding word

This is a subtype of adjectives or pronouns.

Examples

• primo “first”, secondo “second”, terzo “third”;
• III, IV, XIX
• 30a, 30esima, 1°

Mult: multiplicative numeral or corresponding word

Not used.

Frac: fraction

Not used.

Sets: number of sets of things

Not used.

Dist: distributive numeral

Not used.

Range: range of values

Used for expressions such as: * 2/3 Sett. * 3/4 volte

Gen: generic numeral, i.e. a numeral that is neither of the above

Used for time expressions such as: * 23’ * 1’13’’ * 1.00’16’’

Number is an inflectional feature of nouns, pronouns,adjectives, determiners and verbs).

Sing: singular number

A singular noun denotes one person, animal or thing.

Examples

• [en] casa “house”, io compro “I buy”

Plur: plural number

A plural noun denotes several persons, animals or things.

Examples

• [en] case “houses”, noi compriamo “we buy”

Dual: dual number

Not used.

Examples

Ptan: plurale tantum

Not used.

Coll: collective / mass / singulare tantum

Not used.

Number is an inflectional feature of nouns, pronouns,adjectives, determiners and verbs).

Sing: singular number

A singular noun denotes one person, animal or thing.

Examples

• [en] casa “house”, io compro “I buy”

Plur: plural number

A plural noun denotes several persons, animals or things.

Examples

• [en] case “houses”, noi compriamo “we buy”

Dual: dual number

Not used.

Examples

Ptan: plurale tantum

Not used.

Coll: collective / mass / singulare tantum

Not used.

This feature typically applies to pronouns, determiners, pronominal numerals (quantifiers) 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 (see the Reflex feature).

Examples

• Personal pronouns: Uno di loro “One among them”, Per lui è utile “For him it’s useful”
• Possessive pronouns (Poss=Yes): La sua è migliore “Hers is better”, I suoi sono felici “Her/his [parents] are happy”
• Possessive determiners/adjectives (Poss=Yes): La sua scuola è migliore “Her/his school is better”, I loro amici “Their friends”.

Note: the category clitic pronouns includes cases such as: Si è trasformato “Has transformed itself” (reflexive), Ti ho dato “I have given you” (indirect object), Ora si cerca il colpevole “Now one/somebody searches for the culprit” (impersonal form), Lo vediamo spesso “We often see him/it”. These are not marked by the appropriate PronType.

Rcp: reciprocal pronoun

We do not seem to have cases of reciprocal pronouns in Italian.

Art: article

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

Examples

• Definite articles (Definite=Def): La luna “The moon”, I regali di Natale “Christmas presents”
• Indefinite articles (Definite=Ind): Un amico “A friend”, Una sorpresa “A surprise”

Int: interrogative pronoun, determiner, numeral or adverb

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

Examples:

• Interrogative pronouns: Chi è il presidente? “Who is the president?”
• Interrogative determiners: Che cosa faremo adesso? “What shall we do now?”, Quale libro hai letto? “Which book did you read?”

Note: for the time being we do not use the feature ProntType=Int interrogative pronouns such as dove “where” and quando “when” in sentences like Dov’ è Siena? “Where is Siena?”.

Rel: relative pronoun, determiner, numeral or adverb

Examples:

• Relative pronouns: La strada che porta al mare “The road which leads to the sea”, Il libro che ho letto “The book that I read”.
• Relative determiners: Un autore sul cui futuro puoi scommettere “An author on whose future you can bet”.

Dem: demonstrative pronoun, determiner, numeral or adverb

These are often parallel to interrogatives. Some tagsets might also distinguish a separate feature of distance (here / there; [es] aquí / ahí / allí).

Examples

• Demonstrative pronouns: Per questo sono ambiziosi “For this [reason] they are ambitious”.
• Demonstrative determiners: Parte di questo denaro “Part of this money”.

Note: Demonstrative adverbs such as qui “here” and là “there”, ora “now” e allora “then” are not marked with PronType=Dem.

Tot: total (collective) pronoun, determiner or adverb

Examples

We are not using PronType=Tot.

Neg: negative pronoun, determiner or adverb

Examples:

We distinguish only negative adverbs such as: non, nemmeno, _neppure.

Ind: indefinite pronoun, determiner, numeral or adverb

Examples

• Indefinite pronouns: uno “one”, tutti “everybody”, ognuno “each one”, chiunque “anybody”, qualcosa “something”, qualcuno “somebody”
• indefinite determiners: tutti “all”, qualche “some”, ogni “each”, alcuni “some”, diversi “several”

Exc: exclamative determiners. This value is language specific.

Examples

• che disastro “what a disaster”, che catastrofe “what a catastrophe”

Clit: clitic pronouns. This value is language specific.

Used for clitic pronouns, part of speech PRON/PC.

Examples

• mi viene in mente “it comes to my mind”
• capace di farl lo “capable to do it”
• si convincono “they convince themselves”
• ci sono troppi ostacoli “there are too many obstacles”

Predet: predeterminer. This value is language specific.

It is always used along with det:predet dependency relations.

Examples

• tutta la giornata “all day”
• tutti gli esseri umani “all human beings”
• entrambi i prigionieri “both prisoners”

Ord: ordinal pronouns. This value is language specific.

It is used to mark ordinal pronouns. Part of speech is PRON/NO. When ordinals are used as noun modifiers they are marked as [ADJ].

Examples

• Il primo sostiene che … “the first asserts that …
• Un quarto d’ora “a quarter of an hour”
• Valentina è quinta “Valentina is fifth”

Boolean feature of pronouns. It tells whether the word is reflexive, i.e. refers to the subject of its clause.

Yes: it is reflexive

Reflexive pronouns are a subset of clitic pronouns.

Examples

• reflexive personal pronouns: se, si;

Tense is a feature of verbs.

Past: past tense

Examples

• Lui andò a casa “he went home”

Pres: present tense

The present tense denotes actions that are happening right now or that usually happen.

Examples

• Lui va a casa “he goes home”

Fut: future tense

Examples

• andrà a casa “he/she will go home”

Imp: imperfect

• andava a casa “he/she was going home”

Nar: narrative

Not used.

Pqp: pluperfect

Not used.