# BNC Part-of-speech codes

Extracted from the BNC Manual

AJ0
  adjective (general or positive) e.g. good, old
AJC
  comparative adjective e.g. better, older
AJS
  superlative adjective, e.g. best, oldest
AT0
  article, e.g. the, a, an, no . Note the inclusion of no: articles are defined as determiners which typically begin a noun phrase but cannot appear as its head.
AV0
  adverb (general, not sub-classified as AVP or AVQ), e.g. often, well, longer, furthest. Note that adverbs, unlike adjectives, are not tagged as positive, comparative, or superlative. This is because of the relative rarity of comparative or superlative forms.
AVP
  adverb particle, e.g. up, off, out. This tag is used for all prepositional adverbs, whether or not they are used idiomatically in phrasal verbs such as Come out here, or I can't hold out any longer.
AVQ
  wh-adverb, e.g. when, how, why. The same tag is used whether the word is used interrogatively or to introduce a relative clause.
CJC
  coordinating conjunction, e.g. and, or, but.
CJS
  subordinating conjunction, e.g. although, when.
CJT
  the subordinating conjunction that, when introducing a relative clause, as in the day that follows Christmas. Some theories treat that here as a relative pronoun; others as a conjunction. We have adopted the latter analysis.
CRD
  cardinal numeral, e.g. one, 3, fifty-five, 6609.
DPS
  possessive determiner form, e.g. your, their, his.
DT0
  general determiner: a determiner which is not a DTQ e.g. this both in This is my house and This house is mine. A determiner is defined as a word which typically occurs either as the first word in a noun phrase, or as the head of a noun phrase.
DTQ
  wh-determiner, e.g. which, what, whose, which. The same tag is used whether the word is used interrogatively or to introduce a relative clause.
EX0
  existential there, the word thereappearing in the constructions there is..., there are ....
ITJ
  interjection or other isolate, e.g. oh, yes, mhm, wow.
NN0
  common noun, neutral for number, e.g. aircraft, data, committee. Singular collective nouns such as committee take this tag on the grounds that they can be followed by either a singular or a plural verb.
NN1
  singular common noun, e.g. pencil, goose, time, revelation.
NN2
  plural common noun, e.g. pencils, geese, times, revelations.
NP0
  proper noun, e.g. London, Michael, Mars, IBM. Note that no distinction is made for number in the case of proper nouns, since plural proper names are a comparative rarity.
ORD
  ordinal numeral, e.g. first, sixth, 77th, next, last. No distinction is made between ordinals used in nominal and adverbial roles. next and last are included in this category, as general ordinals.
PNI
  indefinite pronoun, e.g. none, everything, one (pronoun), nobody. This tag is applied to words which always function as heads of noun phrases. Words like some and these, which can also occur before a noun head in an article-like function, are tagged as determiners, DT0 or AT0.
PNP
  personal pronoun, e.g. I, you, them, ours. Note that possessive pronouns such as ours and theirs are included in this category.
PNQ
  wh-pronoun, e.g. who, whoever, whom. The same tag is used whether the word is used interrogatively or to introduce a relative clause.
PNX
  reflexive pronoun, e.g. myself, yourself, itself, ourselves.
POS
  the possessive or genitive marker 's or '. Note that this marker is tagged as a distinct word. For example, Peter's or someone else's is tagged Peter's or someone else's ]]>
PRF
  the preposition of. This word has a special tag of its own, because of its high frequency and its almost exclusively postnominal function.
PRP
  preposition, other than of, e.g. about, at, in, on behalf of, with. Note that prepositional phrases like on behalf of or in spite of are treated as single words.
TO0
  the infinitive marker to.
UNC
  unclassified items which are not appropriately classified as items of the English lexicon. Examples include foreign (non-English) words; special typographical symbols; formulae; hesitation fillers such as errm in spoken language.
VBB
  the present tense forms of the verb be, except for is or 's am, are 'm, 're, be (subjunctive or imperative), ai (as in ain't).
VBD
  the past tense forms of the verb be, was, were.
VBG
  -ing form of the verb be, being.
VBI
  the infinitive form of the verb be, be.
VBN
  the past participle form of the verb be, been
VBZ
  the -s form of the verb be, is, 's.
VDB
  the finite base form of the verb do, do.
VDD
  the past tense form of the verb do, did.
VDG
  the -ing form of the verb do, doing.
VDI
  the infinitive form of the verb do, do.
VDN
  the past participle form of the verb do, done.
VDZ
  the -s form of the verb do, does.
VHB
  the finite base form of the verb have, have, 've.
VHD
  the past tense form of the verb have, had, 'd.
VHG
  the -ing form of the verb have, having.
VHI
  the infinitive form of the verb have, have.
VHN
  the past participle form of the verb have, had.
VHZ
  the -s form of the verb have, has, 's.
VM0
  modal auxiliary verb, e.g. can, could, will, 'll, 'd, wo (as in won't)
VVB
  the finite base form of lexical verbs, e.g. forget, send, live, return. This tag is used for imperatives and the present subjunctive forms, but not for the infinitive (VVI).
VVD
  the past tense form of lexical verbs, e.g. forgot, sent, lived, returned.
VVG
  the -ing form of lexical verbs, e.g. forgetting, sending, living, returning.
VVI
  the infinitive form of lexical verbs , e.g. forget, send, live, return.
VVN
  the past participle form of lexical verbs, e.g. forgotten, sent, lived, returned.
VVZ
  the -s form of lexical verbs, e.g. forgets, sends, lives, returns.
XX0
  the negative particle not or n't.
ZZ0
  alphabetical symbols, e.g. A, a, B, b, c, d.

The following portmanteau tags are used to indicate where the CLAWS system has indicated an uncertainty between two possible analyses:

AJ0-AV0
  adjective or adverb
AJ0-NN1
  adjective or singular common noun
AJ0-VVD
  adjective or past tense verb
AJ0-VVG
  adjective or -ing form of the verb
AJ0-VVN
  adjective or past participle
AVP-PRP
  adverb particle or preposition
AVQ-CJS
  wh-adverb or subordinating conjunction
CJS-PRP
  subordinating conjunction or preposition
CJT-DT0
  that as conjunction or determiner
CRD-PNI
  one as number or pronoun
NN1-NP0
  singular common noun or proper noun
NN1-VVB
  singular common noun or base verb form
NN1-VVG
  singular common noun or -ing form of the verb
NN2-VVZ
  plural noun or -s form of lexical verb
VVD-VVN
  past tense verb or past participle

The following codes are used with c elements only:

PUL
  left bracket (i.e. ( or [ )
PUN
  any mark of separation ( . ! , : ; - ? ... )
PUQ
  quotation mark ( ` ' `` '' )
PUR
  right bracket (i.e. ) or ] )

Note that some punctuation marks (notably long dashes and ellipses) are not tagged as such in the corpus, but appear simply as entity references.