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 5 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 5th version of used tagset.
An Example of a tag in the CQL concordance search box: [tag="VBD"] finds all past forms of the verb “be”: was, were (note: please make sure that you use straight double quotation marks)
TAGSET
| POS Tag | Description |
| AJ0 | adjective (unmarked) (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) |
| AV0 | adverb (unmarked) (e.g. OFTEN, WELL, LONGER, FURTHEST) |
| AVP | adverb particle (e.g. UP, OFF, OUT) |
| AVQ | wh-adverb (e.g. WHEN, HOW, WHY) |
| CJC | coordinating conjunction (e.g. AND, OR) |
| CJS | subordinating conjunction (e.g. ALTHOUGH, WHEN) |
| CJT | the conjunction THAT |
| CRD | cardinal numeral (e.g. 3, FIFTY-FIVE, 6609) (excl ONE) |
| DPS | possessive determiner form (e.g. YOUR, THEIR) |
| DT0 | general determiner (e.g. THESE, SOME) |
| DTQ | wh-determiner (e.g. WHOSE, WHICH) |
| EX0 | existential THERE |
| ITJ | interjection or other isolate (e.g. OH, YES, MHM) |
| NN0 | noun (neutral for number) (e.g. AIRCRAFT, DATA) |
| NN1 | singular noun (e.g. PENCIL, GOOSE) |
| NN2 | plural noun (e.g. PENCILS, GEESE) |
| NP0 | proper noun (e.g. LONDON, MICHAEL, MARS) |
| NULL | the null tag (for items not to be tagged) |
| ORD | ordinal (e.g. SIXTH, 77TH, LAST) |
| PNI | indefinite pronoun (e.g. NONE, EVERYTHING) |
| PNP | personal pronoun (e.g. YOU, THEM, OURS) |
| PNQ | wh-pronoun (e.g. WHO, WHOEVER) |
| PNX | reflexive pronoun (e.g. ITSELF, OURSELVES) |
| POS | the possessive (or genitive morpheme) ‘S or ‘ |
| PRF | the preposition OF |
| PRP | preposition (except for OF) (e.g. FOR, ABOVE, TO) |
| PUL | punctuation – left bracket (i.e. ( or [ ) |
| PUN | punctuation – general mark (i.e. . ! , : ; – ? … ) |
| PUQ | punctuation – quotation mark (i.e. ` ‘ ” ) |
| PUR | punctuation – right bracket (i.e. ) or ] ) |
| TO0 | infinitive marker TO |
| UNC | “unclassified” items which are not words of the English lexicon |
| VBB | the “base forms” of the verb “BE” (except the infinitive), i.e. AM, ARE |
| VBD | past form of the verb “BE”, i.e. WAS, WERE |
| VBG | -ing form of the verb “BE”, i.e. BEING |
| VBI | infinitive of the verb “BE” |
| VBN | past participle of the verb “BE”, i.e. BEEN |
| VBZ | -s form of the verb “BE”, i.e. IS, ‘S |
| VDB | base form of the verb “DO” (except the infinitive), i.e. |
| VDD | past form of the verb “DO”, i.e. DID |
| VDG | -ing form of the verb “DO”, i.e. DOING |
| VDI | infinitive of the verb “DO” |
| VDN | past participle of the verb “DO”, i.e. DONE |
| VDZ | -s form of the verb “DO”, i.e. DOES |
| VHB | base form of the verb “HAVE” (except the infinitive), i.e. HAVE |
| VHD | past tense form of the verb “HAVE”, i.e. HAD, ‘D |
| VHG | -ing form of the verb “HAVE”, i.e. HAVING |
| VHI | infinitive of the verb “HAVE” |
| VHN | past participle of the verb “HAVE”, i.e. HAD |
| VHZ | -s form of the verb “HAVE”, i.e. HAS, ‘S |
| VM0 | modal auxiliary verb (e.g. CAN, COULD, WILL, ‘LL) |
| VVB | base form of lexical verb (except the infinitive)(e.g. TAKE, LIVE) |
| VVD | past tense form of lexical verb (e.g. TOOK, LIVED) |
| VVG | -ing form of lexical verb (e.g. TAKING, LIVING) |
| VVI | infinitive of lexical verb |
| VVN | past participle form of lex. verb (e.g. TAKEN, LIVED) |
| VVZ | -s form of lexical verb (e.g. TAKES, LIVES) |
| XX0 | the negative NOT or N’T |
| ZZ0 | alphabetical symbol (e.g. A, B, c, d) |
Source: http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/claws5tags.html
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