Linguistic Reference
All transcript data in TCSE is annotated using spaCy 3.8 (en_core_web_lg). This page provides a comprehensive reference for all linguistic annotation categories used in TCSE's Advanced Search.
Coarse-grained part-of-speech categories based on Universal Dependencies. Used in Advanced Search with {pos} notation (e.g., help{verb}, [be]{aux}).
Shorthand aliases are available for frequently used tags — for example, {v} can be used instead of {verb}.
| Tag |
Part of Speech |
Search |
Aliases |
Type |
Examples |
ADJ |
Adjective |
{adj} |
{a}, {j}, {jj} |
Open |
big, old, green, first |
ADV |
Adverb |
{adv} |
{r}, {rb} |
Open |
very, well, exactly, tomorrow |
INTJ |
Interjection |
{intj} |
|
Open |
hello, ouch, bravo |
NOUN |
Noun |
{noun} |
{n}, {nn} |
Open |
people, time, world, way |
PROPN |
Proper noun |
{propn} |
|
Open |
Mary, John, London, NATO |
VERB |
Verb |
{verb} |
{v}, {vb} |
Open |
run, eat, go, think, help |
ADP |
Adposition |
{adp} |
{p} |
Closed |
in, to, during, of, with |
AUX |
Auxiliary |
{aux} |
|
Closed |
has, is, will, should, must |
CCONJ |
Coordinating conjunction |
{cconj} |
{c} |
Closed |
and, or, but |
DET |
Determiner |
{det} |
{dt} |
Closed |
the, a, this, which, all |
NUM |
Numeral |
{num} |
|
Closed |
one, two, three |
PART |
Particle |
{part} |
|
Closed |
's, not, to |
PRON |
Pronoun |
{pron} |
{pr} |
Closed |
I, it, you, we, they |
SCONJ |
Subordinating conjunction |
{sconj} |
|
Closed |
that, if, while, because |
PUNCT |
Punctuation |
{punct} |
|
Other |
. , ; : ! ? |
SYM |
Symbol |
{sym} |
|
Other |
$, %, § |
X |
Other |
{x} |
|
Other |
foreign words, typos |
SPACE |
Space |
{space} |
|
Other |
whitespace tokens |
Detailed POS tags following the Penn Treebank tagset. Searchable with {@tag} notation (e.g., {@VBG} for gerunds/present participles).
Nouns
| Tag |
Description |
Examples |
NN |
Noun, singular or mass |
dog, music, education |
NNS |
Noun, plural |
dogs, children, ideas |
NNP |
Proper noun, singular |
London, Obama, Google |
NNPS |
Proper noun, plural |
Americans, Alps |
Verbs
| Tag |
Description |
Examples |
VB |
Verb, base form |
go, eat, run |
VBD |
Verb, past tense |
went, ate, ran |
VBG |
Verb, gerund / present participle |
going, eating, running |
VBN |
Verb, past participle |
gone, eaten, taken |
VBP |
Verb, non-3rd person singular present |
go, eat, run |
VBZ |
Verb, 3rd person singular present |
goes, eats, runs |
MD |
Modal |
can, could, may, might, will, would, shall, should, must |
Adjectives
| Tag |
Description |
Examples |
JJ |
Adjective |
big, green, incomprehensible |
JJR |
Adjective, comparative |
bigger, better, faster |
JJS |
Adjective, superlative |
biggest, best, fastest |
AFX |
Affix (hyphenated adjective part) |
e.g., "anti" in "anti-war" |
Adverbs
| Tag |
Description |
Examples |
RB |
Adverb |
very, well, quickly, never |
RBR |
Adverb, comparative |
faster, better, more |
RBS |
Adverb, superlative |
fastest, best, most |
WRB |
Wh-adverb |
where, when, why, how |
Pronouns & Determiners
| Tag |
Description |
Examples |
PRP |
Personal pronoun |
I, you, he, she, it, we, they |
PRP$ |
Possessive pronoun |
my, your, his, her, its, our, their |
WP |
Wh-pronoun |
who, what, whom |
WP$ |
Possessive wh-pronoun |
whose |
WDT |
Wh-determiner |
which, that, what |
DT |
Determiner |
the, a, an, this, that, these |
PDT |
Predeterminer |
all, both, half |
EX |
Existential there |
there (is/are) |
Other
| Tag |
Description |
Examples |
IN |
Preposition or subordinating conjunction |
in, of, by, that, if, because |
CC |
Coordinating conjunction |
and, or, but, nor, yet |
CD |
Cardinal number |
one, 2, 1,000 |
TO |
to |
to (go), to (the store) |
POS |
Possessive ending |
's, ' |
RP |
Particle |
up, off, out, in (phrasal verbs) |
UH |
Interjection |
oh, well, um, uh |
FW |
Foreign word |
de, la, von |
LS |
List item marker |
1., 2., a., b. |
SYM |
Symbol |
$, %, +, = |
HYPH |
Hyphen |
- |
NFP |
Superfluous punctuation |
..., -- |
XX |
Unknown |
unanalyzable tokens |
ADD |
Email or URL |
user@example.com |
_SP |
Space |
whitespace |
Dependency Labels
Syntactic dependency relations showing how words relate to each other in a sentence. Searchable with {@label} notation (e.g., {@nsubj} for nominal subjects).
Note
The {@...} notation searches both fine-grained tags and dependency labels simultaneously. For example, {@VBG} matches gerunds (tag) while {@nsubj} matches nominal subjects (dependency).
Core Arguments
| Label |
Description |
Example |
nsubj |
Nominal subject |
She runs. |
nsubjpass |
Nominal subject (passive) |
It was built. |
dobj |
Direct object |
I see you. |
dative |
Dative (indirect object) |
Give me a book. |
attr |
Attribute |
She is a teacher. |
agent |
Agent (passive by-phrase) |
Built by engineers. |
expl |
Expletive |
There is a problem. |
Clausal Arguments
| Label |
Description |
Example |
csubj |
Clausal subject |
What she said is true. |
csubjpass |
Clausal subject (passive) |
That he came was unexpected. |
ccomp |
Clausal complement |
I think he left. |
xcomp |
Open clausal complement |
I want to go. |
acomp |
Adjectival complement |
She looks happy. |
oprd |
Object predicate |
I consider him smart. |
Modifiers
| Label |
Description |
Example |
amod |
Adjectival modifier |
a big house |
advmod |
Adverbial modifier |
run quickly** |
nummod |
Numeric modifier |
three cats |
nmod |
Nominal modifier |
a cup of coffee** |
npadvmod |
Noun phrase as adverbial modifier |
yesterday*, this way*** |
quantmod |
Quantifier modifier |
about 200** |
appos |
Appositional modifier |
Sam, my brother** |
acl |
Adjectival/relative clause |
the man who came** |
relcl |
Relative clause modifier |
the book I read** |
advcl |
Adverbial clause modifier |
If it rains, I stay. |
neg |
Negation modifier |
I do not agree. |
det |
Determiner |
the book |
predet |
Predeterminer |
all the people |
poss |
Possession modifier |
my book |
Prepositional & Case
| Label |
Description |
Example |
prep |
Prepositional modifier |
go to school |
pobj |
Object of preposition |
in the house** |
pcomp |
Complement of preposition |
instead of going** |
case |
Case marking |
John 's book |
Coordination & Connectors
| Label |
Description |
Example |
conj |
Conjunct |
cats and dogs** |
cc |
Coordinating conjunction |
cats and dogs |
preconj |
Pre-correlative conjunction |
either A or B |
mark |
Marker (subordinating conjunction) |
because it rained |
Verbal
| Label |
Description |
Example |
aux |
Auxiliary |
I have eaten. |
auxpass |
Passive auxiliary |
It was built. |
compound |
Compound |
New* York, ice* cream |
prt |
Particle (phrasal verb) |
give up, turn off** |
Other
| Label |
Description |
Example |
ROOT |
Root of the sentence |
She runs fast. |
punct |
Punctuation |
Hello, world.** |
parataxis |
Parataxis (loosely joined clause) |
He said — I agree. |
intj |
Interjection |
Well, I think... |
dep |
Unclassified dependent |
(catch-all) |
meta |
Meta modifier |
structural markup |
Morphological Features
Grammatical properties of individual tokens. Searchable with {#feature} notation using partial matching (e.g., {#past} matches any token containing "Past" in its morphological annotation).
| Feature |
Values |
Search example |
Description |
VerbForm |
Fin, Ger, Inf, Part |
{#ger}, {#inf} |
Finite, gerund, infinitive, participle |
Tense |
Past, Pres |
{#past}, {#pres} |
Past or present tense |
Aspect |
Perf, Prog |
{#perf}, {#prog} |
Perfect or progressive aspect |
Mood |
Ind |
{#ind} |
Indicative mood |
VerbType |
Mod |
{#mod} |
Modal verb |
Number |
Sing, Plur |
{#sing}, {#plur} |
Singular or plural |
Person |
1, 2, 3 |
{#person: 3} |
1st, 2nd, or 3rd person |
Case |
Acc, Nom |
{#nom}, {#acc} |
Nominative or accusative case |
Gender |
Fem, Masc, Neut |
{#fem}, {#masc} |
Grammatical gender (pronouns) |
Degree |
Pos, Cmp, Sup |
{#cmp}, {#sup} |
Positive, comparative, superlative |
Definite |
Def, Ind |
{#def}, {#ind} |
Definite or indefinite article |
PronType |
Art, Dem, Ind, Prs, Rel |
{#dem}, {#rel} |
Article, demonstrative, indefinite, personal, relative |
Poss |
Yes |
{#poss} |
Possessive |
Reflex |
Yes |
{#reflex} |
Reflexive pronoun |
Polarity |
Neg |
{#neg} |
Negative polarity (not) |
NumType |
Card, Mult, Ord |
{#ord} |
Cardinal, multiplicative, ordinal |
Foreign |
Yes |
{#foreign} |
Foreign word |
ConjType |
Cmp |
{#conjtype} |
Comparative conjunction (than) |
Passive voice
spaCy's en_core_web_lg model does not annotate passive voice in the morphological features for English. Use dependency labels instead: {@auxpass} (passive auxiliary) or {@nsubjpass} (passive nominal subject).
Named Entity Types
Named entities recognized by spaCy's NER model. Searchable with %TYPE notation (e.g., %PERSON, say %ORG). See also Named Entity Search.
| Type |
Description |
Examples |
PERSON |
People, including fictional |
Obama, Einstein, Hamlet |
ORG |
Organizations, companies, agencies |
Google, the UN, NASA |
GPE |
Countries, cities, states |
France, New York, California |
LOC |
Non-GPE locations: mountains, bodies of water |
the Alps, the Pacific, Antarctica |
FAC |
Facilities: buildings, airports, highways |
the Eiffel Tower, JFK Airport |
NORP |
Nationalities, religious/political groups |
American, Buddhist, Republican |
DATE |
Absolute or relative dates/periods |
tomorrow, last year, 2024 |
TIME |
Times shorter than a day |
3 o'clock, this morning |
MONEY |
Monetary values |
$5, 2 million euros |
PERCENT |
Percentages |
fifty percent, 10% |
QUANTITY |
Measurements: weight, distance, etc. |
5 kg, 2 miles, 100 degrees |
CARDINAL |
Numerals not covered by other types |
five, hundred, 42 |
ORDINAL |
Ordinal numbers |
first, 42nd, third |
EVENT |
Named events |
World War II, the Olympics |
WORK_OF_ART |
Titles of works |
Hamlet, Mona Lisa |
PRODUCT |
Products, vehicles, foods |
iPhone, Boeing 747 |
LAW |
Named documents of law |
the Magna Carta, GDPR |
LANGUAGE |
Named languages |
English, Mandarin, Arabic |
Advanced Search Syntax Summary
Quick reference for all search notation available in Advanced Search mode. For detailed usage and examples, see Advanced Search Query Syntax.
| Syntax |
Description |
Example |
word |
Surface form search |
help |
[lemma] |
Lemma (base form) search |
[be] → am, is, are, was, were, been, being |
['s] |
Literal surface match |
['s] → 's (possessive/contraction) |
word{pos} |
Surface + POS filter |
help{verb}, help{noun} |
[lemma]{pos} |
Lemma + POS filter |
[help]{noun} |
{pos} |
POS-only search |
{propn} (any proper noun) |
{@tag_or_dep} |
Fine-grained tag or dependency |
{@VBG} (gerund), {@nsubj} (subject) |
{#morph} |
Morphological feature |
{#past} (past tense), {#plur} (plural) |
{-pos} |
Negative POS filter |
{-verb} (not a verb) |
-word |
Negative word match |
-the |
a\|b |
OR alternatives |
help\|assist |
+prefix |
Prefix match |
+un → un..., under..., until... |
{} or * |
Wildcard (one or more words) |
[make] {} {noun} |
-_ |
Wildcard (exactly one word) |
to -_ surprise |
_ |
Noun chunk placeholder |
[give] _ _ |
^ |
Start of segment |
^ however |
%TYPE |
Named entity search |
%PERSON, say %ORG |