A tagset is a list of part-of-speech tags (POS tags for short), i.e. labels used to indicate the part of speech and sometimes also other grammatical categories (case, tense etc.) of each token in a text corpus.
English CLAWS part-of-speech tagset version 2 is available in English corpora annotated by the tool using CLAWS (the Constituent Likelihood Automatic Word-tagging System) developed by University Centre for Computer Corpus Research on Language at Lancaster University.
The Constituent Likelihood Automatic Word-tagging System abbreviated CLAWS was developed by UCREL at Lancaster University. This is the 2nd version of used tagset.
An Example of a tag in the CQL concordance search box: [tag="AT1"] finds all singular articles as a, an, every (note: please make sure that you use straight double quotation marks)
Tagset
| POS Tag | Description |
| ! | punctuation tag – exclamation mark |
| $ | germanic genitive marker – (‘ or ‘s) |
| &FO | formula |
| &FW | foreign word |
| ( | punctuation tag – left bracket |
| ) | punctuation tag – right bracket |
| , | punctuation tag – comma |
| – | punctuation tag – dash |
| —– | new sentence marker |
| . | punctuation tag – full-stop |
| … | punctuation tag – ellipsis |
| : | punctuation tag – colon |
| ; | punctuation tag – semi-colon |
| ? | punctuation tag – question-mark |
| “ | punctuation tag – quotation marks |
| APP$ | possessive pronoun, pre-nominal (my, your, our etc.) |
| AT | article (the, no) |
| AT1 | singular article (a, an, every) |
| BCS | before-conjunction (in order (that), even (if etc.)) |
| BTO | before-infinitive marker (in order, so as (to)) |
| CC | coordinating conjunction (and, or) |
| CCB | coordinating conjunction (but) |
| CF | semi-coordinating conjunction (so, then, yet) |
| CS | subordinating conjunction (if, because, unless) |
| CSA | ‘as’ as a conjunction |
| CSN | ‘than’ as a conjunction |
| CST | ‘that’ as a conjunction |
| CSW | ‘whether’ as a conjunction |
| DA | after-determiner (capable of pronominal function) (such, former, same) |
| DA1 | singular after-determiner (little, much) |
| DA2 | plural after-determiner (few, several, many) |
| DA2R | comparative plural after-determiner (fewer) |
| DAR | comparative after-determiner (more, less) |
| DAT | superlative after-determiner (most, least) |
| DB | before-determiner (capable of pronominal function) (all, half) |
| DB2 | plural before-determiner (capable of pronominal function) (eg. both) |
| DD | determiner (capable of pronominal function) (any, some) |
| DD1 | singular determiner (this, that, another) |
| DD2 | plural determiner (these, those) |
| DDQ | wh-determiner (which, what) |
| DDQ$ | wh-determiner, genitive (whose) |
| DDQV | wh-ever determiner (whichever, whatever) |
| EX | existential ‘there’ |
| ICS | preposition-conjunction (after, before, since, until) |
| IF | ‘for’ as a preposition |
| II | preposition |
| IO | ‘of’ as a preposition |
| IW | ‘with’; ‘without’ as preposition |
| JA | predicative adjective (tantamount, afraid, asleep) |
| JB | attributive adjective (main, chief, utter) |
| JBR | attributive comparative adjective (upper, outer) |
| JBT | attributive superlative adjective (utmost, uttermost) |
| JJ | general adjective |
| JJ | general comparative adjective (older, better, bigger) |
| JJT | general superlative adjective (oldest, best, biggest) |
| JK | adjective catenative (‘able’ in ‘be able to’; ‘willing’ in ‘be willing to’) |
| LE | leading co-ordinator (‘both’ in ‘both…and…’; ‘either’ in ‘either… or…’) |
| MC | cardinal number neutral for number (two, three…) |
| MC$ | genitive cardinal number, neutral for number (10’s) |
| MC-MC | hyphenated number 40-50, 1770-1827) |
| MC1 | singular cardinal number (one) |
| MC2 | plural cardinal number (tens, twenties) |
| MD | ordinal number (first, 2nd, next, last) |
| MF | fraction, neutral for number (quarters, two-thirds) |
| NC2 | plural cited word (‘ifs’ in ‘two ifs and a but’) |
| ND1 | singular noun of direction (north, southeast) |
| NN | common noun, neutral for number (sheep, cod) |
| NN1 | singular common noun (book, girl) |
| NN1$ | genitive singular common noun (domini) |
| NN2 | plural common noun (books, girls) |
| NNJ | organization noun, neutral for number (department, council, committee) |
| NNJ1 | singular organization noun (Assembly, commonwealth) |
| NNJ2 | plural organization noun (governments, committees) |
| NNL | locative noun, neutral for number (Is.) |
| NNL1 | singular locative noun (street, Bay) |
| NNL2 | plural locative noun (islands, roads) |
| NNO | numeral noun, neutral for number (dozen, thousand) |
| NNO1 | singular numeral noun (no known examples) |
| NNO2 | plural numeral noun (hundreds, thousands) |
| NNS | noun of style, neutral for number (no known examples) |
| NNS1 | singular noun of style (president, rabbi) |
| NNS2 | plural noun of style (presidents, viscounts) |
| NNSA1 | following noun of style or title, abbreviatory (M.A.) |
| NNSA2 | following plural noun of style or title, abbreviatory |
| NNSB | preceding noun of style or title, abbr. (Rt. Hon.) |
| NNSB1 | preceding sing. noun of style or title, abbr. (Prof.) |
| NNSB2 | preceding plur. noun of style or title, abbr. (Messrs.) |
| NNT | temporal noun, neutral for number (no known examples) |
| NNT1 | singular temporal noun (day, week, year) |
| NNT2 | plural temporal noun (days, weeks, years) |
| NNU | unit of measurement, neutral for number (in., cc.) |
| NNU1 | singular unit of measurement (inch, centimetre) |
| NNU2 | plural unit of measurement (inches, centimetres) |
| NP | proper noun, neutral for number (Indies, Andes) |
| NP1 | singular proper noun (London, Jane, Frederick) |
| NP2 | plural proper noun (Browns, Reagans, Koreas) |
| NPD1 | singular weekday noun (Sunday) |
| NPD2 | plural weekday noun (Sundays) |
| NPM1 | singular month noun (October) |
| NPM2 | plural month noun (Octobers) |
| PN | indefinite pronoun, neutral for number (none””)” |
| PN1 | singular indefinite pronoun (one, everything, nobody) |
| PNQO | whom |
| PNQS | who |
| PNQV$ | whosever |
| PNQVO | whomever, whomsoever |
| PNQVS | whoever, whosoever |
| PNX1 | reflexive indefinite pronoun (oneself) |
| PP$ | nominal possessive personal pronoun (mine, yours) |
| PPH1 | it |
| PPHO1 | him, her |
| PPHO2 | them |
| PPHS1 | he, she |
| PPHS2 | they |
| PPIO1 | me |
| PPIO2 | us |
| PPIS1 | I |
| PPIS2 | we |
| PPX1 | singular reflexive personal pronoun (yourself, itself) |
| PPX2 | plural reflexive personal pronoun (yourselves, ourselves) |
| PPY | you |
| RA | adverb, after nominal head (else, galore) |
| REX | adverb introducing appositional constructions (namely, viz, eg.) |
| RG | degree adverb (very, so, too) |
| RGA | post-nominal/adverbial/adjectival degree adverb (indeed, enough) |
| RGQ | wh- degree adverb (how) |
| RGQV | wh-ever degree adverb (however) |
| RGR | comparative degree adverb (more, less) |
| RGT | superlative degree adverb (most, least) |
| RL | locative adverb (alongside, forward) |
| RP | prep. adverb; particle (in, up, about) |
| RPK | prep. adv., catenative (‘about’ in ‘be about to’) |
| RR | general adverb |
| RRQ | wh- general adverb (where, when, why, how) |
| RRQV | wh-ever general adverb (wherever, whenever) |
| RRR | comparative general adverb (better, longer) |
| RRT | superlative general adverb (best, longest) |
| RT | nominal adverb of time (now, tommorow) |
| TO | infinitive marker (to) |
| UH | interjection (oh, yes, um) |
| VB0 | be |
| VBDR | were |
| VBDZ | was |
| VBG | being |
| VBM | am |
| VBN | been |
| VBR | are |
| VBZ | is |
| VD0 | do |
| VDD | did |
| VDG | doing |
| VDN | done |
| VDZ | does |
| VH0 | have |
| VHD | had (past tense) |
| VHG | having |
| VHN | had (past participle) |
| VHZ | has |
| VM | modal auxiliary (can, will, would etc.) |
| VMK | modal catenative (ought, used) |
| VV0 | base form of lexical verb (give, work etc.) |
| VVD | past tense form of lexical verb (gave, worked etc.) |
| VVG | -ing form of lexical verb (giving, working etc.) |
| VVN | past participle form of lexical verb (given, worked etc.) |
| VVZ | -s form of lexical verb (gives, works etc.) |
| VVGK | -ing form in a catenative verb (‘going’ in ‘be going to’) |
| VVNK | past part. in a catenative verb (‘bound’ in ‘be bound to’) |
| XX | not, n’t |
| ZZ1 | singular letter of the alphabet:’A’, ‘a’, ‘B’, etc. |
| ZZ2 | plural letter of the alphabet: ‘As’, b’s, etc. |
Source: http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/claws2tags.html
