Introduction
Each code consists of two parts separated by a space. The first part is two characters long and encodes the
part of speech. The second part is eight characters long and encodes the parsing information. Each
character represents a distinct grammatical category. When a category does not apply to a particular form,
it is left blank (encoded by the placeholder -).
Example code from Matthew 1:2
part of speech code parsing code
verb third singular, aorist active indicative
Parts of speech codes
Most of the parts of speech are encoded by a single character, but certain related types have two-character
part of speech codes.
A- adjective
C- conjunction
D- adverb
N- noun
P- preposition
V- verb
X- particle
RA definite article
RD demonstrative pronoun
RI interrogative/indefinite pronoun
RP personal/possessive pronoun
RR relative pronoun
Parsing codes
Each character in the eight-character parsing code represents a particular grammatical category, and non-
blank values must come from a limited set of values. The categories are listed below in order along with
their possible values and the interpretations of those values.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
person tense voice mood case number gender degree
1 1st person A aorist A active D imperative A accusative P plural F feminine C comparative
2 2nd person F future M middle I indicative D dative S singular M masculine S superlative
3 3rd person I imperfect P passive N infinitive G genitive N neuter
P present O optative N nominative
X perfect P participle V vocative
Y pluperfect
Parsing codes for different parts of speech
There is no form for which all of these grammatical categories are relevant, and each part of speech tends
to have a predetermined set of categories with obligatory non-blank values. In some cases, however, a
category may be optional for a given part of speech. Furthermore, the parts of speech may be analyzed
into three broad categories: (i) noun-like parts of speech, (ii) verbs, and (iii) other parts of speech.
Noun-like parts of speech
The noun-like parts of speech are the simplest, and they include the following:
A- adjective
N- noun
RA definite article
RD demonstrative pronoun
RI interrogative/indefinite pronoun
RP personal/possessive pronoun
RR relative pronoun
All of these parts of speech except adjective [A-] and personal/possessive pronoun [RP] always have
precisely three non-blank grammatical categories in their parsing code: case, number, and gender.
Adjectives [A-] differ only in that they may also have a non-blank value for degree, whereas
personal/possessive pronouns [RP] differ only in that they may have a blank value for gender.
Verbs
Verbs [V-] are the most complex and must be subdivided into three types. Finite verbs have precisely five
non-blank categories in their parsing codes: person, tense, voice, mood, and number; participles have
precisely six non-blank categories in their parsing codes: tense, voice, mood, case, number, and gender;
and infinitives have precisely three non-blank categories in their parsing codes: tense, voice, and mood.
Other parts of speech
The other parts of speech include the following:
C- conjunction
D- adverb
P- preposition
X- particle
All of these parts of speech except adverb [D-] have all blank values in their parsing code. Adverbs [D-],
however, may have a non-blank value for degree.
