Static Information: States & Properties

States & Properties Annotation Guide

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StaticInformation:States&Properties

WhatisStaticInformation?The purpose of this annotation scheme is to identify static information present in a text. Here we constrast static information with dynamic information. Dynamic information tells us about things changing or happening, about transient states of affairs. The boldfaced portions of the following examples indicate dynamic information.

(1) John drove to the corporate office in his red car. (2) All 75 people on board the Aeroflot Airbus died.

In these cases, “drove”, “on board” and “died” all indicate events, things that happen once in the timeline of the text. Contrast the following portions:

(3) John drove to the corporate office in his red car. (4) All 75 people on board the Aeroflot Airbus died.

In these cases, “John”, “corporate”, “office”, “red”, “car”, “All”, “75”, “people”, and “Airbus” tell us something about John, the office, the car, the people, and the plane. None of this information changes. The word “his” indicates an unchanging relationship between John and the car, and “Aeroflot” indicates the owner of the Airbus, which also does not change. These are all examples of static information.

All static information is associated with at least one referring expression. Referring expressions are a set of words that refer to some particular thing. In these cases “corporate” is associated with the referring expression “corporate office”; “red” and “car” are associated with “his red car”; “his” is associated with both John and the car; and so forth. When annotating static information, you will be provided with texts that have their referring expressions already marked. These texts may also include co-reference relationships. These referring expressions and co-reference relationships should be taken as given, and only corrected in the case they are obviously wrong.

Notation: In examples, static information will be underlined. Referring expressions will be surrounded by [square brackets]. If a referring expression comprises the whole example, the brackets may be omitted. Portions of an example that are of interest for other reasons will be surrounded by {curly braces}. Types listed in Table 1 will use SMALL_CAPS. A dashed underline will mark information that may look static, but is not.

TwoTypesofStaticInformation:States&PropertiesWe will separate static information into two kinds: States and Properties. These two kinds share numerous features, which are covered in the rest of this section. The features particular to either kind are covered in the section devoted to that kind later in this guide.

The two kinds are distinguished only by how many referring expressions are associated with the information. Properties are static information associated with a single referring expression. States are


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static information associated with two or more referring expressions. (States represent an unchanging relationship between two or more referents, and for this reason they will sometimes referred to as Static Relationships or Context Relations). In the above examples, “his” and “Aeroflot” indicate States, while the rest of the underlined portions indicate Properties.

InterchangeabilityofStatesandPropertiesMost properties can be expressed as states, and vice versa. Consider the following pairs of examples:

(5) [John] was a giant. (Property) (6) [John] was a giant to [Bob]. (State)

(7) [The front teeth] are often the most dirty. (Property) (8) [The teeth in the front of [the mouth]] are often the most dirty. (State)

(9) [The three-headed dragon] was fearsome indeed. (Property) (10) [The dragon with [three heads]] was fearsome indeed. (State)

As these examples show, whether or not the expression should be marked as a state or a property is dependent on how the author chooses to express himself. The determining factor for us is whether or not one referring expression (for a Property) or two or more referring expression (for a State) are involved in the expression of the information.

WhattoAnnotateBoth properties and states have the following information in common: signal, polarity, literality, modality, and type. The type of a state is called a “frame”.

SignalThe signal is the word or phrase which indicates the information in question. In (11) the signal is the word “siblings.”

(11) [Jack] and [Jill] were siblings.

All properties will have a signal. Most states will have a signal as well, but there are rare cases when a state will have no signal, as in (12), where we mark a state between the referring expressions “birds” and “sparrow.” This state is implied by our understanding of the text, but there is no explicit signal that indicates the relationship.

(12) [Birds] were chirping. [A sparrow] was the loudest.

Finding the signal can sometimes be difficult. In those cases it helps to look for a “pivot” word in the expression, around which you can vary the subject and object, but, when expressing the same state or property, stays constant.


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PolarityThe polarity indicates whether the expression of the state information is expressed in a negated form. There are two parts to polarity: a true/false value, and the set of words that indicate the polarity. In the following two examples, (13) expresses a piece of information with positive (true) polarity, while (14) expresses a piece of information with negative (false) polarity, with “not” being the signal.

(13) He drove [a car] that was red. (14) He drove [a car] that was {not} red, but rather …

LiteralityLiterality marks whether the information is literally the case, or rather is represents a metaphorical or figurative expression. Literality is similar to polarity, in that it has both a true/false value, and a set of words that may signal the value of the literality. In (15), “animal” is used in a figurative sense, so we would mark literality as “false”.

(15) [John] is an animal in bed.

ModalityModality marks whether or not a modal is used in the expression of the information. The principal English modal verbs are can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will and would. In (16), the modal “should” is to qualify the expression of the information.

(16) [The CEO’s car] {should} always be a Lincoln.

TypeorFrameAll static information has a type which tells us what the basic semantics of the information being expressed. For States, the type is also called a “frame.” Because States and Properties are often interchangeable, the type hierarchy for states and properties runs parallel, with equivalent types on both sides. The list of types for Properties and States, along with explanatory examples, are shown in Table 1. The details of this table will be explained in later sections.


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Property Type Example State Frame Roles Example Generic Generic subject / object Class Fido the dog Relative Class relative-to / member [[My] brother] Name/Title Dr. John Smith Relative Name namer / named [I] call [her pookie] Location The front teeth Relative Location subject / object [The teeth in the front of [the mouth]] Implied Gen. Comparison † Generic Comparison greater / lessor /equal † Specific Comp. The most rice ever assembled Specific Comp. “ [Alan] is stronger than [Bob]. Implied Gen. Verbal † Generic Verbal subject / object /etc. † Implied Spec. Verbal [Mary] is beloved. Specific Verbal verb-specific roles [John] loved [Mary]. Attribute [He] is unkempt. Relative Attribute attributer / attributed-to [Men] are always unkempt to [women]. Physical [He] is huge. Physical “ [His father] is huge to [him]. Personality [He] is mean. Personality “ [He] is always mean to [his son]. Amount – Amount – – Mass A handful of hemp Mass “ To [me] it was just [a handful of hemp]. Countable Five men Countable “ To [me] there were [five men]. Implied Meronymy – Meronymy – – Whole Chicken legs Part-Whole part / whole [The dragon with [three heads]] Part The three-headed dragon “ “ [The chicken’s [legs]] [WholeSet] (none)* Set-Subset set /subset

[Some of [the king’s horses]] Quantification Some horses “ “ [Set] (none)* Set-Member set / member

[[John] and [Mary]] [Member] (none)* “ “ Ordinal The first man “ “ + ordinal [The first brother of [the seven]] Composed The wall stone Composed-Material composed / material [Stone] is a great building material.

[A [stone] house] will never fall down.‡ Material The stone house “ “

Table 1: Hierarchy of types for Properties and States and examples. All types have an instantiation as both a state and property, and these correspondences are shown via rows

– The dash indicates these intermediate categories (Amount and Meronymy) are for organizing the hierarchy only, and may not be used for annotation.

† A comparison or verbal frame, whether it is expressed as a property or state, will usually have a dimension or verb assigned to it. In the case that no appropriate dimension or verb can be found in the dictionary, the generic version may be used.

* [WholeSet], [Set], and [Member] property types are included for completeness only. No examples have been found that would fall into these categories, as it seems that the mention of the relevant set or member would, in most cases, instantiate a referring expression, making it into a state.

‡ In this example, the word “stone” in “stone house” would not normally be marked as a referring expression, leaving this as a property. However, if “stone” is being discussed per se, it is marked as a referring expression, changing this marking to a state.


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PropertiesProperties are the class of static information that attach to a single referring expression. If the information is cast as involving two or more referring expressions, then it should be marked as a State: these are dealt with in the next section.

A Property is usually something which describes some relatively permanent feature of the object in question. Canonical examples of properties are:

(17) [John] is brave. (18) [The red ball] bounced.

It is extremely important to read through the whole text before beginning annotation. Sometimes, things can syntactically appear to be properties, but they actually change later in the text.

WhattoAnnotateProperties are a type of static information. Therefore, as described earlier in this guide, they should be marked with a signal, a polarity true/false value, a set of polarity tokens, a literality true/false value, a set of literality tokens, a set of modality tokens, and a type.

In addition to these, you must specify the referring expression to which the property attaches. Some property types additionally require you to select an appropriate word from the dictionary to describe the property; a generic tag is provided in all cases for when no appropriate word can be found.

Only the signal, the type, and the referring expression are required. The polarity and literality true/false values default to true if they are not otherwise specified; the set of tokens indicating the polarity, literality, and modality default to empty if not otherwise specified.

ReferringExpressionYou must pick a single referring expression to which the property attaches. Often a property is actually embedded in a referring expression, such as “red” in example (18). Other times the property is nearby, as in (17) – it may potentially be in a different sentence altogether. There are four rules when choosing the referring expression:

(i) The property must be a property of the chosen referring expression. (ii) Choose the closest referring expression that applies.

(iii) If two referring expressions are equally close, choose the one that is bound syntactically closer to the expression of the property.

(iv) If two referring expressions are equally close and syntactically bound, choose the one earlier in the text.


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PropertyTypesIn addition to the referring expression, you will need to specify a type for the property. There is a hierarchy of property types shown in Table 1. The meaning of each type is outlined below. The only two types shown in the table that may not be chosen are “Amount” and “Implied Meronymy”: these are dummy types that are only used as a convenient way to organize the hierarchy and are not for attaching to annotations.

ClassBy far the most common property type is CLASS. A class property indicates that the referent in question is a member of some class of objects. A class can be thought of a category of things in the world, induced by a number of fixed properties of the object, organized into a hierarchy. You can think of the Linnaean taxonomy of living things as an example of a class hierarchy. At the top level there is “living thing” which is subdivided into kingdoms such as “plant” “animal”, “fungus” and so forth. The animal kingdom is further subdivided and subdivided again, until you reach species. The following two examples are canonical examples of class properties:

(19) [John] is a man. (20) [The red car]

In these two examples, the classes are “man” and “car”.

Note: Class membership may not be static across a text. For example, in some folktales, the characters become different animals via magic. These transformations should not be marked as properties (or states) because the class membership changes across the course of the text.

When choosing the CLASS type, you will be asked to choose the relevant class from the class dictionary, or else mark it as “no suitable class”.

Name/TitleNames include nicknames, proper names, and other terms of address/appellation for specific people, places, personified animals, etc. Mark first and last names together as one property. Titles include honorifics or usual means of address, such as “Your Honor”, “Your Majesty, “Mister”, “Mr.”, “Mrs.”, “Ms.”, and so forth.

(21) Madam mother (22) Brother gypsy (23) Burenushka, the little red cow (24) Princess Maria (25) The city of Kiev

Sometimes the boundary between CLASS and NAME/TITLE can be slippery. Consider:

(26) His Majesty … (NAME/TITLE) (27) Princess Maria … (CLASS)


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The test to determine whether a Property is a NAME/TITLE or CLASS is to ask whether the word, if used in isolation, indicates a unique individual, thing, or set: if so, it is probably a NAME/TITLE. Alternatively, for a class X if you can form the sentence “He/she/it is an X” and it makes sense, it is probably a CLASS.

Both CLASS and NAME/TITLE can be simultaneously present for a single referring expression. Don’t lump them together as one, but rather mark them separately (e.g., “Princess Maria”' has the NAME/TITLE “Maria” and the CLASS “Princess”). In rare cases, names or titles may be relative to a particular party – in this case it becomes a State, not a Property.

Be careful to distinguish when a word is being used as the name of a group specifically, or rather to indicate that certain people are members of that group. Consider:

(28) The Muslims … (NAME/TITLE) (29) The Muslim army … (GENERIC)

In the first case, the referring expression refers to the set of all Muslims in the world. The word “Muslims” is thus being used as a name. The second indicates that the members of army are themselves Muslims. But the army’s name is not “Muslim”, it is merely being used to describe the army. Therefore it is not a NAME/TITLE and, in this particular case, should be marked GENERIC (see below).

LocationLocations only rarely show up as properties; they usually are found as States. For example:

(30) [The tanner] in [the city of Kiev] (State, not Property)

The city of Kiev is a referring expression in its own right, and the spatial relationship indicated by “in” is captured by a State of type RELATIVE_LOCATION. As a general rule, locations indicated by adjectives, where they are in a position relative to an unmentioned object, are good candidates for marking:

(31) The front tooth (32) The upper room

Like all properties, if the location does not represent a permanent feature (within the text) of the object in question, it should not be marked as a property.

ImpliedComparison(Generic&Specific)Comparisons are usually marked as States, because it is the rare comparison that does not involve two referring expressions. Sometimes, however, there are instances where the reference set or object is not mentioned explicitly:

(33) The most rice ever assembled (34) The strongest man in the world

The implied comparison type requires you to specify a dimension along which the comparison is being made, selected from the dimension dictionary. If no appropriate dimension can be found, the generic form of the comparison tag should be used.


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Attribute:PhysicalPhysical attributes include visible or measurable characteristics such as size, height, and weight. Mark subjective properties such as “beautiful” as GENERIC, not PHYSICAL. (Age, while physical in some sense, falls under the category of GENERIC as well.) Properties responding to the questions “How much?” and “How many?” are not PHYSICAL Properties, but rather are AMOUNT Properties.

(35) [The furrow] is fourteen feet high. (36) [The red car]

Attribute:PersonalityPersonality attributes indicate character traits of people – or personified animals or things. They do not characterize particular actions or moods, but rather an unchanging aspect of individual’s personality.

(37) Father, our gracious sovereign (38) My faithful servants (39) [I] am young and foolish.

Attribute:MassAmountMass amount properties answer the question: “How much?” They may also answer the question “How many?” in general, non-numeric terms. Examples:

(40) A [handful] of hemp (41) A [pinch] of tobacco (42) A [verst]’s distance (43) A [long] time (44) [Some] money

Attribute:CountableAmountCountable Amounts are almost always numbers. They answer the question “How many?” including not only specific figures, but also estimates (“about”, “or so”) and ranges (“10 to 20”). Do not mark as countable amount words that are not meant to refer to numbers; in particular, do not mark the word “one” as a countable amount when it means “any/a/an” rather than 1 (versus 2, 3). Examples:

(45) Five thousand little children (46) His own two feet (47) Ten to twenty trees (48) Some money

Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish a COUNTABLE_AMOUNT from a MASS_AMOUNT. Mark something countable only if it contains or implies a specific or easily quantified number; it does not depend on whether the modified referent is countable or mass.

(49) A dishful of berries … (MASS_AMOUNT) (50) A great multitude of people ... (MASS_AMOUNT) (51) Ten to twenty men … (COUNTABLE_AMOUNT) (52) A few men … (COUNTABLE_AMOUNT)


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Attribute(Generic)A property that is clearly an attribute, being an intrinsic quality of a specific object and not another property type, but doesn’t fall into one of the other sub-categories of attribute, should be marked with the GENERIC_ATTRIBUTE tag.

(53) [She] is beautiful.

ImpliedMeronymyMeronymy is the semantic relation between part and whole. Here we distinguish nine categories of so-called implied meronymy. These types of meronymy are implied because either the part or the involved in the meronymic relationship is not identified as a referring expression. In contrast, an explicit meronymic relation would be between two actual referring expressions, and we would mark it as a State.

ImpliedMeronymy:Whole&PartWHOLE and PART are property types that are used when a referring expression is described using either: the entirety it is (or formerly was) a part of (WHOLE); a part (or former part) of the referring expression (PART). As is normally the case, if the whole or part it is itself a referring expression, it should be marked as a State.

(54) Chicken legs (WHOLE - no specific chicken) (55) A cockroach antenna (WHOLE - no specific cockroach) (56) The three-headed dragon (PART)

Do not mark the actual word “whole” as WHOLE.

(57) The [whole army] was involved in the battle. (not WHOLE)

This is not WHOLE. In this case the word “whole” should be QUANTIFICATION (see below)

ImpliedMeronymy:Quantification(andWholeSet) Quantification properties answer the questions “Which one(s)?” or “What portion?” It is the property equivalent of the “subset” in the “set-subset” relationship. QUANTIFICATION properties are modifiers that serve to delimit the scope of the reference. Common examples are “every”, “all”, and “some”.

(58) Every corner (59) All my bones (60) A certain kingdom (61) Some of the money

Note that there is a subtle difference between QUANTIFICATION and MASS_AMOUNT. “Some” could fall under either category, depending on its meaning.

Usually indicators of negation, such as “no” or “not”, should be marked using Polarity. Sometimes, though, they are QUANTIFICATION properties:

(62) [None of the men] went to the store.


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Non-informative determiners (“a”, “an”, the”, “such”) should not be marked. Do not include “of” or other helping words as part of quantification:

(63) All of them … (“of” not marked)

Also do not mark “more”, as a Property; it is a State:

(64) [Alan] had more teeth than [Bob]. (“more” should not be marked as property)

For the sake of completeness the property type hierarchy includes the inverse of QUANTIFICATION, namely, WHOLESET. At this time we have found no examples of a WHOLESET property, because usually the mention of the set of which a subset is a part results in a referring expression to the set, making the expression a State, not a Property.

ImpliedMeronymy:Ordinal(andSet,Member)Properties that indicate the order or position of a referring expression in a set should be marked ORDINAL. Examples of ordinal properties:

(65) The thrice tenth kingdom (66) The second sister (67) A third flock (68) The elder sister

Note that ordinal properties should only be marked when the relevant set is not actually marked as a referring expression. Consider:

(69) [The first brother] of [the seven] … (State, not Property)

The words “next” or “other” should usually not be marked as ORDINAL properties. In particular, temporal relationships, even if implied, should not be marked:

(70) the next morning … (this is a temporal relationship, not a Property) (71) the other eye … (State)

For the sake of completeness the property type hierarchy includes the related properties SET and MEMBER. Like WHOLESET, at this time we have found no examples of these two properties, because usually the mention of the relevant information results in the instantiation of a referring expression, making the expression a State, not a Property.

ImpliedMeronymy:Composed&MaterialMATERIAL properties indicate what a referent is made or composed of, or one of its ingredients. They do not include distinct parts of a whole (which are instead listed as referring expressions in their own right).

(72) A cake of rye (73) Clay legs

COMPOSED is the inverse of MATERIAL. It is a property that describes the referring expression by indicating what thing the referent will be the material of.


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(74) The wall stone (meaning “The stone used for building stone walls” = COMPOSED)

Note that there is a subtle difference between WHOLE and COMPOSED. If in the previous example a specific piece of stone were being referred to, this would be WHOLE

(75) The wall stone (meaning, e.g., “A particular stone that came from a wall” = WHOLE)

ImpliedVerbal(Generic&Specific)The VERBAL tag is used to mark a property that uses or implies a verb, but the relevant referring expression is the only argument to the verb, and so the expression cannot be rendered as a VERBAL State.

(76) [Mary] was beloved. (VERBAL Property) (77) [Mary] was beloved by [all]. (State)

The implied verbal type requires you to specify a verb which governs the property, selected from the verb dictionary. You will also select a verb role, where the roles are specific to verb selected. If no appropriate verb can be found in the dictionary, the generic form of the verb tag should be used.

GenericInformation that is clearly a property but doesn’t fall into one of the other types (especially GENERIC_ATTRIBUTE), should be marked with the GENERIC tag.

(78) The royal treasury (79) Foreign lands (80) An old man who looked to be about seventy

DifficultCases

Negation

Indicators of negation, such as “no” or “not” should be marked using Polarity. However, you should be careful that the negation does not indicate an amount or attach to a verb rather than the property:

(81) [None of the men] went to the store. (polarity = true, QUANTIFICATION) (82) [The men] did not go to the store. (polarity = true, not a Property)

CopularsCopular expressions may or may not yield properties. Consider:

(83) [the tsar] is rich.

This is clearly a property. However, consider:

(84) [John] is [the man who committed the crime].


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This is a copular expression, but is the second bracketed expression is also a referring expression in its own right, and co-referent with “John.” Therefore it is not a property (nor a state, for that matter).

AppositivesAppositives are usually markable as properties:

(85) [John, the Vice President], ran the company.

RelativeClausesRelative clauses are also usually markable as properties. The property should include the wh-word (e.g., “who”, “what”, “where”, etc.).

(86) They encountered [an old man, who looked to be about seventy].

Multi‐wordExpressions,Conjunctions,andDisjunctionsProperties expressed as multi-word expressions (or sometimes with conjunctions or disjunctions) should be examined carefully to see if the words should be split into multiple properties or kept as one. If the multiple separate properties are marked, care must be taken to be sure that the referent has all those properties individually. Examples:

(87) [heat seeking missile] (88) [the sepia toned photograph] (89) [the condition] for the capture was dead or alive (90) [a red and fast car]

In the first case we mark “heat seeking” as a single property, rather than two separate properties “heat” and “seeking”. The test is to drop one or the other word and see if the description still applies. In this case “a heat missile” is something different from a “heat seeking missile”. The next two cases are similar. In the last example, the car is red independent of whether it is fast, and vice-versa; therefore they are marked a separate properties.

FunctionalinContextSometimes statements will describe an object as functional in a particular context, or for a particular purpose. These should usually be marked as VERBAL, using the Attributive role.

(91) [This measure] is not big enough.

WhatisnotaProperty

ThingsthatChangearenotPropertiesAttributes or other things that change over the course of the timeline of the text are not properties in the sense of this annotation. Contrast the following two examples:

(92) [The train] doesn’t run. (93) [The train] doesn’t run this Sunday.


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The first is a property. The second is not a property, because it happens at a specific time. In these cases, you may use the Events and Temporal Expression annotations to guide you. To do this, look at the relevant words – are they marked as an event or a temporal expression? (The expression “doesn’t run” in (93) would be marked as an event of type “State”) If so, it should not be marked as a property. Sometimes properties are referred to in modal fashion, or in state changing constructions. For example:

(94) [The princess] became kindlier in her old age.

Constructions such as these should not be marked because they indicate something that is not permanent over the course of the story.

RelationshipsarenotPropertiesAs noted elsewhere in this guide, relationships between two or more referring expressions are considered states, not properties. If you are unsure whether a piece of information should be a state, look at the signal and involved words. Is there a referring expression marked that could be used to instantiate the property as a state? If so, it should be marked as a state.

EventsandTemporalExpressionsarenotPropertiesAnything marked as an event is not a property.

Non‐CompositionalSemanticsarenotPropertiesClasses expressed with multi-word expressions should usually not contain properties:

(95) [wedding dress]

“wedding” should not be marked as a property because “wedding dress” is a class onto itself. To determine if a multi-word expression can be considered a class, consult the class dictionary.

EmphaticsEmphatics should not be marked as properties:

(96) such [a beautiful crown]

DiscourseRelationsarenotPropertiesDiscourse relations, such as “because”, “therefore”, and so forth, are not properties. Referent identity markers, in particular, look syntactically like properties but are not:

(97) [the same crust] as before


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StatesStates are the class of static information that attach to one or more referring expressions. If the information is cast as involving a single referring expression, then it should be marked as a Property; these are dealt with in the previous section.

A State is usually something which describes a relatively permanent relationship between several things. Canonical examples of States are:

(98) [John] loves [Mary]. (99) [Jack] and [Jill] were siblings. (100) [John]’s car (a possession relationship)

WhattoAnnotateStates are a type of static information. Therefore, as described earlier in this guide, they should be marked with a signal, a polarity true/false value, a set of polarity tokens, a literality true/false value, a set of literality tokens, a set of modality tokens, and a type (aka, a frame).

In addition to these, you must specify (i) the set of referring expressions involved in the State (also known as the arguments of the State); (ii) the role each referring expression plays in the State (which may take a qualifier); and (iii) the argument depth and combination constraint for each referring expression. Each referring expression and its associated roles, depth, and combination constraint, are together called an argument to the State. The referring expression and its associated depth is called the argument filler. Each argument filler may appear only once in a State.

Only the frame, two referring expressions1, and two different roles are required. The polarity and literality true/false values default to true if they are not otherwise specified; the set of tokens indicating the signal, polarity, literality, and modality default to empty; argument depth defaults to zero; combination constraint defaults to Irreflexive.

ReferringExpressionsYou must select at least two referring expressions to which the State applies. The same rules for choosing the right referring expressions in Properties apply here as well:

(i) Each chosen referring expression must be involved in the relationship. (ii) For each referent, choose the closest referring expression that applies.

(iii) For each referent, if two referring expressions are equally close, choose the one that is bound syntactically closer to the expression of the state.

(iv) For each referent, if two referring expressions are equally close and syntactically bound, choose the one earlier in the text.

1 In rare cases only a single argument need be specified – see the section on “Complex States”


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Although the most common case is a state with exactly two arguments, there are many examples of states with multiple arguments

(101) [Alan], [Bob], and [Charles] were brothers. (three arguments) (102) [The three musketeers] were [Arthos], [Porthos], and [Aramis]. (four arguments) (103) [Alan], [Bob], [Charles], [Mary], [Susie], [Pattie], … and [Jack] all loved each other. (as

many arguments as you like)

We will discuss how these multiple arguments will be encoded in the “Complex States” section.

RoleEach referring expression involved in the State must have at least one role assigned to it. Roles indicate who the referring expression is with regard to the relationship. For example:

(104) [John] loves [Mary].

Here, John is the one doing the loving; Mary is the one loved. In syntax we might say that John is the subject, Mary the object. In the case of States, each State frame comes with its own set of roles. In this particular case, the state frame would be VERBAL:LOVE, and John would be in the role of the EXPERIENCER, and Mary in the role of the STIMULUS. These roles are provided by the VERBAL:LOVE frame for you to choose.

Each argument may, in theory, have more than one role. This is covered in the section on “Complex States.”

Roles may also take a “qualifier”, which is specific to that role. For example, the NAMED role in the RELATIVE_NAME frame takes a “name” qualifier, which is used to capture the name given to the referent by the NAMER.

DepthRarely the actual participants in a State do not appear as their own referring expression, but rather are mentioned implicitly by some set of which they are a part. For example:

(105) [The brothers] loved one other.

Here, the set “the brothers” contains people who, individually, love each other member in the set. But the brothers are not mentioned by name. Therefore, to generate an argument for, we mark the referring expression “The brothers” as the argument, and set the depth to one, which indicates that it is the members of the set that are actually participating in the state, not the set itself.

CombinationConstraintThe argument combination constraint is only specified when there are more than two arguments to a State, or more than two roles to an argument. It is used to determine what binary relationships are actually represented by the annotation. Because this is rather complex, it is treated in the section on “Complex States”, after the discussion of State Frames.


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StateFrameTypesThe hierarchy of state frame types runs parallel to the Property type hierarchy. An overview of each frame type is given below, with examples.

RelativeClassOne of the most common State types is RELATIVE_CLASS, which indicates that a referent falls into a certain class of objects relative to another referent. The most obvious example of these types of States are familial relationships:

(106) [John’s] [{brother} Joe] (107) [Alan] is [Bob]’s {father}.

The first example means that is a member of the class of brothers, but it is not expressing that he is a brother to everyone; only to John. Similarly, Alan is a father, but this expression of the State indicates only that he is Bob’s father, not everyone’s father.

Like the Property, when choosing the RELATIVE_CLASS type, you will be asked to choose the relevant class from the class dictionary, or else choose the generic form of the tag. Choosing the right class can be tricky. The rules for choosing the correct class are:

(i) If there is a word expressing the specific class, then find the dictionary entry that uses that specific word. This is called a lexicalized class or explicit class.

(ii) If there is no word that expresses the specific class, this is called an implicit class. In this case, choose the dictionary class that best expresses the class membership relationship, and mark the selection as “implicit”.

This frame has two roles: RELATIVE-TO and MEMBER. You should capture the lexicalized class (if applicable) as the “class qualifier” to the MEMBER role.

RelativeLocationMost expressions indicating the location of an object are expressed as static relationships, often using a preposition or prepositional phrase.

(108) [The monument] in front of [the castle]. (109) [Canada] is north of [the United States].

This State frame has two roles: SUBJECT and OBJECT.

Comparison(Specific&Generic)Another extremely common form of State is a comparison between two objects.

(110) [Jack] is stronger than [Jill].

This State frame has three sub-frames, shown in Table 2.


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Comparison Sub-Frame Roles STRICT_INEQUALITY GREATER, LESSER INEQUALITY GREATER, LESSER EQUALITY EQUAL

Table 2: Comparison Sub-Frames

The difference between “strict” inequality and regular inequality is the same as the difference between “less than” (strict) and “less than or equal” (regular). Each comparison frame requires you to specify a dimension along which the comparison is being made, selected from the dimension dictionary. If no appropriate dimension can be found, the generic form of the appropriate sub-frame should be used.

MeronymyKeep in mind there are four different types of meronymy, and sometimes it can be difficult to distinguish between them.

Meronymy:Part‐WholeAny relationship between a whole and its parts, if both the part and whole are mentioned, should be encoded with a PART-WHOLE State frame. This frame is often signaled by the preposition “with” or an apostrophe-s (‘s) construction.

(111) [The dragon] with [three heads]. (112) [The chicken’s [legs]]

This State frame has two roles: PART and WHOLE.

Meronymy:Set‐SubsetIf a set or a continuous object is being segmented into portions, then this relationship should be marked with the set-subset State frame:

(113) [Some of [the king’s horses]] escaped. (114) [Two-thirds of [the pie]] had already been eaten.

In (113), there is a large set (“the king’s horses”) of which a subset have been selected for discussion. In (114), a portion of the pie has been selected for discussion.

This State frame has two roles: SET and SUBSET.

Meronymy:Set‐Member(includingOrderedSets)If an individual member of a set is picked out, this is a set-member relationship. This is perhaps the most commonly expressed meronymic relationship because nearly anytime two referring expressions are joined with “and” or “or”, it makes a new set that gets marked as its own referring expression:

(115) [[Jack] and [Jill]] (three objects: Jack, Jill, and “Jack and Jill” the set) (116) [[Peter], [Paul], and [Mary]] (four objects: Peter, Paul, Mary, and the set of the three)

This State frame has two roles: SET and MEMBER. A MEMBER that has a specific place in an ordered is also captured using this frame:


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(117) [John] was {first} in [the line].

In this case, you capture the word “first” as the “ordinal qualifier” to the MEMBER role.

The SET-MEMBER is the only exception to the rule that we use the depth marking to identify missing referring expressions that are members of a set. For example:

(118) He cut off [all of the dragon’s three heads].

In (118) we would naturally look for a SET-MEMBER between “all of the dragon’s three heads” and the individual heads. However, if the heads are not mentioned individually those referring expressions will not be present. In this case we will NOT mark a SET-MEMBER relationship. The reason for this is the purpose of the SET-MEMBER State marking is to identify the relationship between two referring that are actually present in the text: every mention of a set implies its members, so marking of the SET-MEMBER

without the members themselves adds no information.

Meronymy:Composed‐MaterialUsually materials show up as Properties because normally the materials are not pulled out in their own referring expressions. Rarely, however, the material may be discussed directly, instantiating a referring expression. In this case, where one would normally use a MATERIAL Property, one should use the COMPOSED-MATERIAL state relationship.

(119) [Stone] is a great building material. [A [stone] house] will never fall down.

This State frame has two roles: COMPOSED and MATERIAL.

Verbal(Generic&Specific)Another extremely common State is where the State is expressed either directly using a verb or nominalized verb (meaning it has been lexicalized or is explicit), or else implies a verbal relationship (it is implicit).

(120) [John] loved [Mary] (121) [The man] owned [a car] (explicit, lexicalized with the verb ‘own’) (122) [The man]’s [car] (implicit verb ‘own’)

Like the Property, when choosing the VERBAL type, you will be asked to choose the relevant verb from the verb dictionary, or else choose the generic form of the tag. Choosing the right verb can be tricky in cases of implicit verbs, because the meaning is often underspecified and has to be inferred from the context and our understanding of the world, as in (122). The rules for choosing the correct verb are:

(i) If there is a word expressing the specific verb, then choose the dictionary entry that uses that specific word. The word may or may not actually be a verb, but it should imply the exact verb you should choose. Therefore the nominalized verb “prayer” implies one should choose the verb “pray”. This is called a lexicalized or explicit.

(ii) If there is no word that expresses the specific verb, this is called implicit. In this case, choose the dictionary verb that best expresses the class membership relationship, and mark the selection as


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“implicit”. You should also do this if you cannot find the lexicalized verb in the dictionary (while still marking

Each verb will have a certain set of roles associated with it. The generic form of the verb frame has all possible roles. The available roles can be organized into a hierarchy, as shown in Figure 1.

In detail, the meanings of each role are as follows:

Role Description

Actor A Participant that is the instigator of an event. Rarely used itself; usually a more specialized role is used.

Agent An Actor in an event who initiates and carries out the event intentionally or consciously, and who exists independently of the event.

Asset A Value that is a concrete object. Often a sum of money or good that is transferred; for example, used for currency exchanged using verbs such as 'build', 'get', and 'obtain'

Attribute An Undergoer that is a property of an entity or entities, as opposed to the entity itself. For example '[The price] of oil soared'. The quality is usually scalar, meaning a quantity, such as mass, length, time, or temperature which is completely specified by a number on an appropriate scale.

Beneficiary An Undergoer in a state or an event that is (potentially) advantaged or disadvantaged by the event or state. Used by such verbs as 'build', 'get', 'perform', 'prepare', and 'steal'. Generally introduced by the preposition 'for'.

Cause An Actor in an event (that may be animate or inanimate) that initiates the event, but that does not act with any intentionality or consciousness; it exist independently of the event.

Co‐Agent An Agent who is acting in coordination or reciprocally with another agent while participating in the same event (this role is specific to frames with symmetrical participants).

Co‐Patient A Patient that participates in an event with another patient, both participate equally in the event (this role specific to frames with symmetrical participants).

Co‐Theme A Theme that participates in an event or state with another theme; both participate equally (thereby distinguishing this role from Pivot; this role is specific to frames with symmetrical participants).

Destination A Goal that is a concrete, physical location, usually the end point of a motion, or a direction towards which the motion is directed. Used with a 'to' prepositional phrase by verbs indicating a change of location, such as 'banish', or verbs of sending and carrying. Also used as location direct object for verbs for which the concept of destination is implicit (and location could not be Source), such as 'butter'.

Duration Length or extent of time.

Experiencer A Patient that is aware of the event undergone (this role is specific to events of perception).

Extent A Value indicating the amount of measurable change to a participant over the course of the event. Often expressed as a range or degree of a change, as in 'The price of oil soared [10%]'.

Final Time A Time that indicates when an event ends or a state becomes false.

Frequency Number of occurrences of an event within a given time span.


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Goal A Place that is the end point of an action and exists independently of the event.

Initial Location A Source that indicates the concrete, physical location where an event begins or a state becomes true.

Initial Time A Time that indicates when an event begins or a state becomes true.

Instrument An Undergoer in an event that is manipulated by an agent, and with which an intentional act is performed. It exists independently of the event. Generally introduced by a 'with' prepositional phrase.

Location A Place that is concrete.

Material A Patient and Source that exists at the starting point of action, which is transformed through the event into a new entity; may be concrete or abstract. Used for the starting point of an action such as 'build' or 'grow'.

Participant An entity involved in a state or event. Rarely used itself; usually a more specialized role is used.

Patient An Undergoer in an event that experiences a change of state, location or condition, that is causally involved or directly affected by other participants, and exists independently of the event.

Pivot A Theme that participates in an event with another theme unequally. Pivot is much more central to the event (thereby distinguishing it from Co‐Theme).

Predicate A predicative complement to a verb.

Place A Participant that represents the state in which an entity exists. Rarely used itself; usually a more specialized role is used.

Product A Result that is a concrete object. Used for the ending point of an action such as 'build' or 'grow'.

Recipient A Destination that is animate. Often the target of a transfer. Used by some verbs of change of possession, of communication, and verbs involving the body.

Reflexive A dummy role where the filler for another role is referred to again, e.g., “The solution presented [itself] yesterday.”

Result A Goal that comes into existence through the event.

Source A Place that is the starting point of action; exists independently of the event.

Stimulus A Cause in an event that elicits an emotional or psychological response (this role is specific to frames of perception).

Time A Participant that indicates an instant or an interval of time during which a state exists or an event took place.

Theme An Undergoer that is central to an event or state that does not have control over the way the event occurs, is not structurally changed by the event, and/or is characterized as being in a certain position or condition throughout the state.

Topic A Theme characterized by information content transferred to another participant (this role is specific to frames of communication).

Trajectory A Place which is a path along which an event takes place or unfolds.

Undergoer A Participant in a state or event that is not an instigator of the event or state. Rarely used itself; usually a more specialized role is used.

Value A Place along a formal scale.

Verb Used to mark the actual expression of the verb, if present. For example, “death” in “his death”.

Table 3: List of possible verb roles, and their meanings


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RelativeNameRarely a particular name will be used only by a particular person, as in the case of “pet” names. These should be encoded using the RELATIVE_NAME State frame:

(123) [I] call [her {Pookie}].

This State frame has two roles: NAMER and NAMED. You should capture the name applied (in this example, “pookie”) as the “name qualifier” to the NAMED role.

RelativeAttribute(Physical,Personality,MassAmount,CountableAmount)Rarely attributes may be cast in relative form. This means the attribute is not a Property of the target referent, but rather is perceived or somehow is the case only to a particular referent. Consider the following examples:

(124) [His father] is {huge} to [him]. (PHYSICAL) (125) [He] is always {mean} to [his son]. (PERSONALITY) (126) To [me] it was just [{a handful} of hemp]. (MASS_AMOUNT) (127) To [me] there were [{five} men]. (COUNTABLE_AMOUNT) (128) [Men] are always {unkempt} to [women]. (GENERIC)

This State frame has two roles: ATTRIBUTER and ATTRIBUTED-TO. In all cases, you should capture the word in curly brackets that indicates the attribution as the “attribute qualifier” to the ATTRIBUTED-TO role. Like the Property form of generic, if the relationship does not cleanly fall into one of the subcategories (PHYSICAL, PERSONALITY, MASS_AMOUNT, or COUNTABLE_AMOUNT), it should be marked as GENERIC.

GenericThere may be cases where a State seems to exist, but doesn’t fall cleanly into any of the provided categories. In this case, the GENERIC State frame should be used. This State frame has two roles: SUBJECT and OBJECT, and allows arbitrary qualifiers on both roles.

ComplexStatesUntil now we have been discussing States that involve at most two participants. These are called binary states or binary relationships. For example:

(129) [John] loves [Mary].

Sometimes, however, States can be expressed that involve more than two participants, such as in (130), or multiple binary relationships can also be expressed in a single expression, as in (131):

(130) [Alan], [Bob], and [Charles] are brothers. (three involved referents) (131) [John] and [Mary] love each other. (= John loves Mary + Mary loves John)

We will call State markings that involve more than two participants or a single binary relation a complex state. These are specified using two techniques: (a) multiple roles are allowed for each argument filler, and (b) each argument filler/role pair has an associated combination constraint. Recall that an argument


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filler is a referring expression and an associated depth, and each argument filler may appear only once in a State.

Using a simple procedure, every complex state may be broken down into the set of binary relationships that it represents. Your annotation interface will show you the corresponding binary states for every complex state. You should make sure this set of binary states properly reflects your understanding of the relationships expressed in the text.

MultipleRolesTo specify a State that encodes multiple binary relationships, start by adding the appropriate roles to the fillers. For (131), we would choose the VERBAL frame “love”, which includes roles EXPERIENCER and STIMULUS. In the example, both John and Mary are acting in both roles, so we would add these two roles to both John and Mary. Each role may appear only once on an argument filler.

(132) [John]EXPERIENCER,STIMULUS and [Mary] EXPERIENCER,STIMULUS love each other. a. [John]EXPERIENCER loves [Mary]. (equivalent binary relation #1) b. [Mary]EXPERIENCER loves [John]. (equivalent binary relation #2)

CombinationConstraintThe combination constraints are used to distinguish between the following types of cases:

(133) [John] and [Mary] love each other. (134) [John] and [Mary] each love only themselves. (135) [John] and [Mary] love each other and themselves.

In all three of these cases, both John and Mary participate in both the EXPERIENCER and STIMULUS roles. A combination constraint is assigned to each argument filler (in these cases, “John” and “Mary”), and takes one of the values Irreflexive, Reflexive, or All. These constraints mean the following:

Combination Constraint Meaning Irreflexive The argument filler / role pair only combines into binary relations with

pairs involving different argument fillers. Reflexive The argument filler / role pair only combines into binary relations with

pairs involving the same argument filler. All An argument filler / role pair combines into a binary relation with all

other pairs (but not itself).

Table 4: Combination Constraint types and their meanings

Note that in no case will an argument filler / role pair combine with itself. Thus we have the following:

(136) [John]IRR and [Mary]IRR love each other. a. John loves Mary. b. Mary loves John.

(137) [John]REF and [Mary]REF each love only themselves. a. John loves John. b. Mary loves Mary.

(138) [John]ALL and [Mary]ALL love each other and themselves.


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a. John loves John. b. John loves Mary. c. Mary loves John. d. Mary loves Mary.

Note that there can invalid combinations of constraints, such that some argument filler / role pair does not combine with any other pair. The annotation interface will warn you when this is the case and prompt you to fix the problem.

DifficultCases

RedundantStatesIn many texts the same phrase will be repeated time and again, such as “his sword” for a particular sword, or “her mother and father” for a particular set of parents who aren’t explicitly named. Although tedious, we will mark all of these, even if they are redundant with previously-marked relationships.

DistinguishingbetweenImplicitVerbalandRelativeClassSometimes distinguishing between implicit VERBAL and implicit RELATIVE_CLASS is difficult:

(139) [The princess] had [a dog]. (VERBAL, with verb “had”) (140) [The princess]’s [pet] (RELATIVE_CLASS, with class “pet”) (141) [The princess]’s [dog] (?)

Is (141) an example of an implicit VERBAL frame using the verb “had” or perhaps “own”, or is it an example of a RELATIVE_CLASS using the class “pet”? In all these cases, you must make a judgment call based on your understanding of the text. If you feel the semantics of the relation can be completely expressed as a single verb or single action, then you should probably select VERBAL. If you feel the semantics of the relation involves a complex constellation of features that are not captured by being a participant in a single sort of action, RELATIVE_CLASS is probably more appropriate

FunctionalPartsvsPortionsDistinguishing between PART-WHOLE and SET-SUBSET can be difficult. One distinction to keep in mind is functional versus portion. If the part/subset has a specific function, or specific boundary of demarcation defined by its function, this is likely a PART-WHOLE. If not, this is more likely a SET-SUBSET.

(142) [The trunk of [the car]] (PART-WHOLE) (143) [The rear quarter of [the car]] (SET-SUBSET)

SeparatingStateSemanticsfromtheSurroundingSemanticsBe careful to mark just the relationship between the two referring expressions, and not any part of the semantics of the phrases in which it the relation might be embedded. Consider the sentence:

(144) He gave his blessing.

Look at the relationship between “his” and “blessing.” One’s initial temptation is to create a context relation with roles “giver” and “thing given.” However, this is taking on some of semantics of the verb


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“gave” in which “his blessing” is embedded. When taken in isolation, the phrase “his blessing” expresses a generalized ownership that doesn’t implying a giving action. For example, we embed the phrase “his blessing” in larger phrases with no give, e.g.,

(145) His blessing is worthless to me. (146) I say ‘ha!’ to his blessing.

The relationship stays the same, a generic ownership, even though the embedding changes. Therefore the correct relationship between “his” and “blessing” is one of owner/possession.

MultipleWaysofInterpretingArgumentDepthSometimes a marking of depth greater than zero will not be sufficient to disambiguate what referents are actually filling the argument. For example:

(147) [The people] were riven by strife.

In the right context, this may indicate a State that means, (1) every individual person was in strife with every other individual, or maybe (2) some subgroups are in strife with other subgroups. We will not, for the moment, distinguish between these two ways of interpreting argument depth.

MoreInformationisBetterIn the following example, we have a seemingly straightforward case of an implicit verbal frame of “to pray”, with “their” being the Agent and “their insistent prayer” being the Topic. However, looking at the frame for the verb “to pray”, also available is the role Recipient, which can be filled by “the king”. The rule will be that more information is always better, so we will also mark the king as a participant in this state.

(148) [The king] granted [[their] insistent prayer].

Consider also the following

(149) When he asked for assistance he found [he] had several [[friends] and [helpers]].

The relationships in question are those those between he/friends and he/helpers. Our intuitive sense of the relationship in both cases is one of assistance/help. We potentially have the option of mark a single verbal state (“to help”) that covers both relationships. However, the word “friend” falls clearly into a relative class frame, and implies not just help, but other things besides. So, in the spirit of capturing more information, mark relative class for he/friends and use the verbal frame to capture that for he/helpers.

ASubtleContinuumforRelativeClass/VerbalConsider the following three cases:

(150) The king asked [[his] servant John] to fetch him water. (151) Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, asked [[his] butler John] to fetch him water. (152) The king asked [[his] duke John] to fetch him water.

In each of these cases we can legitimately ask whether these relationships between the sovereign and the servant should be captured by either a relative class or a verbal state. These are good examples of


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relationships that fall in the middle of continuum anchored by relative class on one end and verbal states on the other. Some relationships clearly fall into one or the other. “His helper”, for example, is clearly a verbal state. “Friend”, “brother”, “sister”, are clearly relative states. But what about the above examples? In the case we are considering marking a relative class such as “servant”, “butler”, or “duke”, we must ask ourselves if the person in the category still holds independently of the relationship to the other person. In (150), is the John still a servant even outside his relationship to the king? In (151), is John still a butler outside of his relationship to Prince William? In (152), is John still a Duke outside his relationships to the king? Our answers to these questions depend on our general understanding of the world in which these statements occur.

In (152), John is a Duke presumably because of some hereditary title; the “his” refers to John being a subject of the king, not him being a duke “to the king.” So “Duke” is not a relative class, and the relationship should be marked as a verbal state, probably with the verb “to employ”.

In (151), this presumably happens in the modern day, and John’s job is that of “butler”. He is, at this time, Prince William’s butler, but presumably he would continue to work as a butler even if he didn’t work for Prince William. So this also should be marked verbal “to employ.”

In (150), which was extracted from a fairy tale, this presumably happens in some long-ago time much like the middle ages. “Servant” is less a fixed job title, but rather just a description for people serving the king. If released from the king’s service, John probably would go back to his normal life as a peasant or some such. So this is properly marked as a relative class.

WhatisnotaState

RelationshipsthatChangearenotStatesAttributes or other things that change over the course of the timeline of the text are not properties in the sense of this annotation. Contrast the following two examples:

(153) [John] loves [Mary]. (State) (154) [John] loved [Mary] before, but he doesn’t any longer. (not a State)

TemporalRelationshipsarenotStatesTemporal relationships, such as those between two events, two times, or between an event and a time, are captured in the TimeML suite of annotations and should not be marked as states.

RelationshipsbetweenaVerbanditsArgumentsarenotStatesVerbal arguments are captured in the semantic role annotation and should not be marked as states

DiscourseRelationshipsarenotStatesDiscourse relations, such as “because”, “therefore”, and so forth, should not be marked as states.


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Glossary(Headwords for entries are in italics. A term in a gloss that also appears as a headword in this glossary is underlined.)

argument – the referring expression, set of roles, depth, and combination constraint that together participate in a state.

argument filler – the referring expression and depth part of an argument.

binary – a State is binary if it, in some sense, represents a single relationship. The relationships may be between two different fillers or the same filler. A State is binary if any of the following hold: (a) it has two argument fillers, each with one role apiece, and each of those fillers is marked with the constraint Irreflexive; or (b) it has one argument filler with two roles.

combination constraint – a marking that indicates which argument filler / role pairs may combine with which other argument filler / role pairs.

co-reference relationship – a relationship between two referring expressions that indicates they refer to the same thing.

complex state – a State that represents more than one binary relationship.

context relation – another name for a state.

depth – part of an argument filler; a marking used to indicate whether or not the referring expression in question is the actual

event – an event is a happening in the world. Events are marked using a different annotation scheme, and represent some of the dynamic information contained in a text.

explicit – VERBAL or CLASS types or frames are marked explicit when there is a word directly expressing the verb or class chosen. This is equivalent to lexicalized.

frame – another name for the type of a state.

Implicit – VERBAL or CLASS types or frames may be marked implicit when there is no word directly expressing the verb or class chosen

lexicalized – see explicit

property – static information that is associated with a single referring expression.

referring expression – a set of words that refers to an entity in the world; the entity may be real or imagined, an object, an idea, or an event. Rules covering the marking of referring expressions are covered in the appropriate annotation guide. Referring expressions can be bundled together in co-reference relationships.

static relationship – another name for a state.


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state – static information that is associated with two or more referring expressions. States may also be referred to as context relations or a static relationships.

type – the basic semantic category of a property or state. A state type is also called a frame.

Documents

Static Information: States & Properties