Labels for Tree Diagrams
Labels for Tree Diagrams
Tree diagramming is the best way to represent the underlying hierarchical structure of sentences.
To be clear and consistent, we use the following abbreviations and acronyms to label the forms and functions of grammatical units in tree diagrams.
In tree diagramming, it is important to distinguish between the form and function of a grammatical unit and label both of them.
Labels for Forms:
POS: n. v. adj. adv. det. pron. prep. conj. etc.
Phrasal types: NP, PP, VP, AdjP, AdvP, LVP
Clausal types: IC, DC, NCC, VCC, ACC, etc.
Labels for Functions:
Subj. Objt. Pred. SP, OP, OofP., DO, IO, PNM, Advl., etc.
[ ] used to indicate a phrase
{ } used to indicate a clause
| used to separate subject and predicate in a clause
A. Content Words (aka lexical or open-class words)
noun n.
adjective adj.
verb v.
3.1 Type
1) lexical verb Vlex.
2) auxiliary verb Vaux.
a) primary auxiliary verb Vaux (prim.) (be, have, do)
b) modal auxiliary verb Vaux (mod.) (can, could, may, might, shall, should, will, would, must, etc.)
3.2 TransitiviTy/valency
1) Intransitive IT
2) Monotransitive MT
3) Ditransitive DT
4) Complex transitive CT
5) Copular COP
3. adverb adv.
qualifier qual.
B. Function Words (aka grammatical or closed-class words)
determiner det.
article art.
quantifier quant.
numeral num.
pronoun pron.
preposition prep. or P
conjunction conj.
coordinate conjunction conj. (coor.)
subordinating conjunction conj. (sub.)
C. Miscellaneous
interjection inter.
A. By Type
noun phrase NP
verb phrase VP long verb phrase (LVP) = VP + following constituents
adjective phrase AdjP
adverbial phrase AdvP
preposition phrase PP
B. By Function
subject Subj.
predicate Pred.
direct object DO
indirect object IO
object of preposition OofP
subjective predicative SP or subject complement SC
objective predicative OP or object complement OC
adverbial Advl.
adjectival Adjt.
pre-modifier pre-mod
post noun modifier post-mod/PNM
FC = finite clause
nFC = nonfinite clause
infinitive clause
present participle clause
past participle clause
B. By Dependency
IC = independent/main clause
DC = dependent/subordinating clause
C. By Function
advl. cls. = adverbial clause (a DC that functions as an adverbial)
rel. cls = relative clause (a DC that functions as a post noun modifier)
NCC = noun complement clause (a DC that completes the meaning of an antecedent noun)
VCC = verb complement clause (a DC that completes the meaning of an antecedent verb)
ACC = adjective complement clause (a DC that completes the meaning of an antecedent adjective)
nom. = nominal (a DC that functions like an NP)
adjt. = adjectival (a DC that functions like an AdjP)
advl. = adverbial (a DC that functions like an AdvP)
A. By Type
SIM simple
COM compound
CLX complex
COM-CLX compound-complex
B. By Function
Decl. declarative
Inter. interrogative
Imper. imperative
Excl. exclamatory
Stanford POS Tags
Linguists have successfully trained computer programs to perform grammatical analysis of sentences. Stanford Parser is one of these. You can enter a sentence and the program will analyze it automatically for you. The output includes nested layers of units with POS tags.
You can try it here.
POS tags used in Stanford Parser: