Abréviations proposées
ABBREVIATION OF MORPHOLOGICAL GLOSSES
These abbreviations have been compiled from three main sources : the Leipzig Glossing
Rules, (Corbett 2000; Corbett 2006) and (Creissels 2006). They do not pretend to cover
all imaginable cases. Nevertheless, they could be helpful to anyone who intends to coin
new abbreviations. This compilation has initially been undertaken to be integrated into a
manual of morphology (in French) in progress. Abbreviations in orange have been left
aside in the latter work and are given here for information.
Explanations about these abbreviations are located after the glosses’ table.
Leipzig’s glossing rules are available at the following website :
http://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/resources/glossing-rules.php
Leipzig
1
2
3
Corbett
Creissels
{I, II, III}
A
ABL
ABS
ACC
ABL
ABS
ACC
ADJ
ADV
ACT
AD
ADJ
ADV
ACC
ACP
ADJ
AFF
AGR
AGR
ALL
ALL
ALL
ANA
ANIM
ANTILOG
ANTIPASS
ANTIP
AOR
APPL
ART
AUX
15:41
APPL
ART
ASSOC
ATTRIB
Manual
1
2
3
I, II, III
A
A
ABL
ABS
ACC
ACP
ACT
ADESS
ADJ
ADV
ADVZN
ADVZR
AFF
AFX
AGR
AGT
ALL
ANA
ANIM
ANTILOG
ANTIP
AOR
APPL
APPR
ART
ASSOC
ATT
ATTN
AUG
AUX
AZN
AZR
Signification
first person
second person
third person
gender I, II, III
agent-like arg. of trans. V
adjective (capital)
ablative
absolutive
accusative
accomplished
active (vs. passive)
adessive
adjective
adverb(ial) (capital)
adverbialization
adverbializer
affective
affix
agreement
agent
allative
anaphorical
animate
antilogophoric
antipassive
aorist
applicative
appreciative
article
associative
attributive
attenuative
augmentative
auxiliary
adjectivization
adjectivizer
Manuel - Abréviations proposées
BEN
BENEF
BENEF
CAUS
CIRC
CLF
CLF
COM
COM
COMN
CL
CLAS
COMIT
COMP
COMPL
COND
CONJ
CONN
CONT
COP
CVB
DAT
CVB
DAT
CSTR
CONV
D{1,2,3}
DECAUS
DECL
DEF
DECL
DEF
DEM
DET
DIM
DIR
DIR
DISJ
DIST
DISTR
DIST
DU
DUR
DU
ERG
ERG
ESM
ERG
MOD
EVID
EXCL
EXCL
BEN
C
CAR
CARD
CAUS
CFX
CIRC
CIRCESS
CIRCLAT
CL
CLF
CMLT
CNT
COLL
COM
COMN
COMP
COMPAR
COMPL
COND
CONJ
CONN
CONT
COP
CSTR
CVB
DAT
D{PER}
DECAUS
DECL
DEF
DELAT
DEM
DET
DIM
DIR
DIR
DISJ
DIST
DISTR
DLMT
DU
DUR
ELAT
ERG
ESM
ESS
EVID
EXCL
EXH
benefactive
consonant
caritative
cardinal (number)
causative
circumfix
circumstantial form of the V
circumessive
circumlative
nominal class
classifier
cumulative
countable
collective
comitative
common gender
complementizer
comparative
completive
conditional
conjonction
connective
contessive
copule
noun’s construct form
converb
dative
dative object index ‘D2PL’
decausative
declarative
definite
delative
demonstrative
determinant
diminutive
directionnel
direct
disjoined
distal
distributive
delimitative
dual
durative
elative
ergative
epistemic status marker
essif (case)
evidential
exclusive
exhibitive (numerals)
Manuel - Abréviations proposées
F
F
F(EM)
FIN
FOC
FOC
FOC
FOCO
FOCS
FOCX
FUT
FUT
FUT
GEN
GER
GEN
GEN
HAB
HON
HORT
HUM
HYP
IDEO
IMP
ILL
IMP
ILL
IMPER
IMPARF
INALIEN
INAN
INCL
IND
INDF
INF
INS
INCL
IND
INDF
INESS
INF
INS
INTENS
INDEF
INESS
INSTR
INTER
INTR
INTER
INTR
INV
IPFV
IRR
IPFV
LOC
LOC
M
M
JONCT
LOC
LOG
M(ASC)
EZF
F
FIG
FIN
FLX
FOC
FOCO
FOCS
FOCX
FRAC
FUT
FVT
GRD
GEN
GER
GRND
HAB
HOL
HON
HHON
HORT
HUM
HYP
HYPC
IDEO
IFX
ILL
IMP
IMPF
INALIEN
INAN
INCH
INCL
IND
INDEF
INESS
INF
INS
INTENS
INTER
INTER
INTR
INV
IPFV
IRR
JUSS
LNK
LOC
LOG
M
ezafe
feminine
figure (vs. ground)
final
flexive (inflectional affix)
focus
focalisation of object argt.
focalisation of subject argt.
focalisation of oblique argt
fractionnal (numeral)
future
tense verbal inflection
gerund
genitive
gender
ground (vs. figure)
habitual
holistic
(respect) honorific
(humile) honorific
hortative
human
hypothetical
hypocoristic
ideophone
infix
illative
imperative
imperfect
inalienable
inanimate
inchoative
inclusive
indicative
indefinite
inessive
infinitive
instrumental
intensifieur
interrogative
‘between’ (spatial)
intransitive
inverse
imperfective
irrealis
jussive
linker
locative
logophoric
masculine
Manuel - Abréviations proposées
MOY
NNEG
N
NEG
N
NOM
NOM
NMLZ
OBJ
OBL
OBJ
OBL
OPT
P
PASS
PAT
PFV
PERS
PFV
PL
POSS
POSS
PRED
PRF
PRF
PROG
PROH
PROG
PROX
PRS
PRES
MID
MNS
MODE
MSD
MULT
N
N_
INACP
NACP
NARR
NEG
NEG
N(EU)
NEU
VNF
NFN
NOBV
NOBV
NOM
NOM
NPR
NUM
NZN
NZR
O{1,2,3}{S,P} O{PER}{NB}
OBJ
OBL
OBL
OBV
OBV
OPT
OPT
ORD
P
PREP
P
PARTF
PARTF
PASS
PAT
PEJ
PERS
PERF
PFV
PFX
PL
PL
POL
POS
POS
POSS
POST
POST
POSTESS
POT
POT
PRED
PREP
PREP
PARF
PRF
PRO
PRO
PROG
PROH
PROLAT
PROX
PRES
PRS
PRET
PRT
middle voice
means (semantic role)
(unspecified) mood
masdar
multiplicative
noun (capital)
non- (e.g. N_PST nonpast)
unaccomplished
past (tense) narrative
negation, negative
neuter
non-finite verbal form
non-obviative
nominative
proper noun
numeral
nominalization
nominalizer
object’s index e.g. ‘O1SG’
object
oblique
obviative
optative
ordinal (numeral)
patient-like arg. of trans. V
preposition
partitive
passive
patient
pejorative
personnal
perfective (aspect)
prefix
pluriel
polite
positive (polarity)
possessive
postposition
postessive
potential
predicative
preposition (capital)
perfect / parfait
personal pronoun
progressive
prohibitive
prolative
proximal
present
preterit
Manuel - Abréviations proposées
PST
PTCP
PURP
Q
PRV
PST
PTCL
PTCP
PART
Q
QM
QUOT
RECP
REFL
REL
RES
PREV
PAS
RECIPR
REDUP
REFL
REL
RES
REFL
REL
RESP
RLS
S
S{1,2,3}{S,P}
SBJ
SUBJ
SBJF
SBJP
SBJ
SBJV
SG
SG
SG
SUB
SUB
SUPESS
TAM
TOP
TR
TRANS
VOC
VOIX
Table 1. List of abbreviations
PRV
PST
PTCL
PTCP ; P_
<X>PT
PURP
Q
QM
QUOT
RECP
RED
REFL
REL
RES
RESP
RFX
RLS
S
S
S{PER}{NB}
SBJ
SBJF
SBJP
SBJV
SFX
SG
SPRX
SUB
SUB
SUBDELAT
SUBESS
SUBLAT
SUPER
SUPESS
SUPLAT
TAM
TOP
TR
TRANS
TRSLAT
TRZN
TRZR
UCNT
V
VOC
VOX
VZN
VZR
XCLM
preverb
past
particle
participle
participle X e.g. ‘PRSPT’
purposive
question marker
quantity marker
quotative
reciprocal
reduplication
reflexive
relative
resultative
mark of respect
interfix
realis
single arg. of intrans. V
sentence (capital)
subject’s index e.g. ‘S2PL’
subject
future subjunctive
past subjunctive
subjunctive
suffix
singular
speaker proximate
‘sub’ localisation
subordination marker
subdelative (spatial)
subessive (spatial)
sublative (spatial)
superlative (degree)
superessive (spatial)
superlative (spatial)
tense, aspect, mode
topic
transitive
translative (become X)
translative (across, kroz…)
transitivization
transitivizer
uncountable
verb (capital)
vocative
voice
verbalization
verbalizer
exclamative, exclamation
Manuel - Abréviations proposées
Comments
A. Within glosses, abbreviations are in small caps; syntactic categories in the text are in
capitals (A, N, etc.).
B. Some abbreviations are exceedingly long. This is often the case with participles. We
propose to abbreviate ‘participle’ in PT. In Leipzig’s style ‘passive present participle’
becomes PASS_PRS_PT, but we allow the compact abbreviation PASSPRSPT.
C. In order to help memorization and for coherence purpose, series have been
constituted :
— all affixes end with ‘fx’ e.g. afx, sfx, pfx, ifx, rfx, etc.
— all category changing marks follow the model ‘<C>zr’, where C indicates the output
category e.g. NZR = nominalizing mark, AZR = adjectivizing mark, etc.
— all long abbreviations ending in ‘PT’ encode participles.
D. In Leipzig’s notation some notions (infix, reduplication, etc.) are directly encoded
within the form of the gloss (cf. the use of ‘~’, ‘< >’, etc.). Nevertheless, an abbreviated
form of these notions can be helpful (i) when one wants to refer to the generic use of the
notion (e.g. to indicate that there is an affix the function of which remains unknown),
(ii) to names semantic rules associated to forms. For instance, the semantic rule
associated to reduplication in a given language L might be formulated as: REDS(X) =
‘|X| ≥ 2’.
E. For languages marking agreement with subject or object in a cumulative way,
Creissels’s notation, which amalgamates slots, seems to be the most compact and yet
the simplest way to encode what is observed. Two cases have to be distinguished,
depending on the language’s type:
1. Function slot, person slot, number slot: S1SG = ‘subject, 1rst person, singular’
2. Function slot, person slot, (nominal) class slot (i.e. number): O3:1 = ‘object, 3rd
person, class 1 (= singular).
F. For locative marking, we have adopted Kracht’s classification (Kracht 2002)(cf. table
2) extending it slightly with various proposals (cf. Mel'čuk 1994; Haspelmath 1993).
‘Coinitial’ denotes the place that a moving object (Figure) come from, and cofinal the
place where it ends. The orientations given by the suffixed Latin root are the
following : ‘being at’ = -essive, ‘going to’ = -lative, ‘coming from’ = -elative.
Manuel - Abréviations proposées
eng
in
on
under
at
behind
before
near
among
across
around
lat
in
super
sub
ad
post
ante
apud
inter
trans
circum
Static
inessive
superessive
subessive
adessive
postessive
antessive
apudessive
interessive
transessive
circumessive
Coinitial
elative
delative
subelative
ablative
postelative
ante_elative
apudelative
interelative
Cofinal
illative
superlative
sublative
allative
postlative
antelative
apudlative
interlative
translative
circumlative
Table 2. After Kracht (2002) and Mel'čuk (1994: 280-82)
Abbreviation of languages
Norm ISO 639-3, which is used by typologists among others, is the more recent one and
covers over 6,900 languages : http://www.ethnologue.com/web.asp
References
Corbett Greville. 2006. Agreement. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Corbett Greville G. 2000. Number. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Creissels Denis. 2006. Syntaxe générale. Une introduction typologique 1. Catégories et
constructions. Paris: Hermès / Lavoisier.
Haspelmath Martin. 1993. A Grammar of Lezgian. Vol. 9, Mouton Grammar Library.
Berlin / New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Kracht Marcus. 2002. "On the Semantics of Locatives". Linguistics and Philosphy
25:157-232.
Mel'čuk Igor A. 1994. Cours de morphologie générale. Deuxième partie: significations
morphologiques. 5 vols. Vol. 2. Montréal: Presses de l'Université de Montréal CNRS Editions.