Abbreviations

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.

Table 1. List of abbreviations
Leipzig Corbett Creissels Manuel Signification
1 1 first person
2 2 second person
3 3 third person
{I, II, III} I, II, III gender I, II, III
A A agent-like arg. of trans. V
A adjective (capital)
ABL ABL ABL ablative
ABS ABS ABS absolutive
ACC ACC ACC ACC accusative
ACP ACP accomplished
ACT ACT active (vs. passive)
AD ADESS adessive
ADJ ADJ ADJ ADJ, A adjective
ADV ADV ADV ADV adverb(ial) (capital)
ADVZN adverbialization
ADVZR adverbializer
AFF AFF affective
AFX affix
AGR AGR AGR agreement
AGT agent
ALL ALL ALL ALL allative
ANA ANA anaphorical
ANIM ANIM animate
ANTILOG ANTILOG antilogophoric
ANTIP ANTIPASS ANTIP antipassive
AOR AOR aorist
APPL APPL APPL applicative
APPR appreciative
ART ART ART article
ASSOC ASSOC associative
ATTRIB ATT attributive
ATTN attenuative
AUG augmentative
AUX AUX auxiliary
AZN adjectivization
AZR adjectivizer
BEN BENEF BENEF BEN benefactive
C consonant
CAR caritative
CARD cardinal (number)
CAUS CAUS CAUS causative
CFX circonfix
CIRC CIRC circumstantial form of the V
CIRCESS circumessive
CIRCLAT circumlative
CL CL nominal class
CLF CLF CLAS CLF classifier
CMLT cumulative
CNT countable
COLL collective
COM COM COMIT COM comitative
COMN COMN common gender
COMP COMP COMP complementizer
COMPAR comparative
COMPL COMPL completive
COND COND COND conditional
CONJ CONJ conjonction
CONN CONN connective
CONT CONT contessive
COP COP copule
CSTR CSTR noun’s construct form
CVB CVB CONV CVB converb
DAT DAT DAT DAT dative
D{1,2,3} D{PER} dative object index ‘D2PL’
DECAUS DECAUS decausative
DECL DECL DECL DECL declarative
DEF DEF DEF DEF definite
DELAT delative
DEM DEM demonstrative
DET DET determinant
DIM DIM diminutive
DIR DIR directionnel
DIR DIR direc
DISJ DISJ disjoined
DIST DIST DIST distal
DISTR DISTR distributive
DLMT delimitative
DU DU DU dual
DUR DUR durative
ELAT elative
ERG ERG ERG ERG ergative
ESM ESM epistemic status marker
MOD ESS essif (case)
EVID EVID evidential
EXCL EXCL EXCL exclusive
EXH exhibitive (numerals)
EZF ezafe
F F F(EM) F feminine
FIG figure (vs. ground)
FIN FIN final
FLX flexive = (inflectional affix)
FOC FOC FOC FOC focus
FOCO FOCO focalisation of object argt.
FOCS FOCS focalisation of subject argt.
FOCX FOCX focalisation of oblique argt
FRAC fractionnal (numeral)
FUT FUT FUT FUT future
FVT tense verbal inflection
GER GRD gerund
GEN GEN GEN GEN genitive
GER gender
GRND ground (vs. figure)
HAB HAB habitual
HOL holistic
HON HON (respect) honorific
HHON (humile) honorific
HORT HORT hortative
HUM HUM human
HYP HYP hypothetical
HYPC hypocoristic
IDEO IDEO ideophone
IFX infix
ILL ILL ILL illative
IMP IMP IMPER IMP imperative
IMPARF IMPF imperfect
INALIEN INALIEN inalienable
INAN INAN inanimate
INCH inchoative
INCL INCL INCL inclusive
IND IND IND indicative
INDF INDF INDEF INDEF indefinite
INESS INESS INESS inessive
INF INF INF INF infinitive
INS INS INSTR INS instrumental
INTENS INTENS intensifieur
INTER INTER interrogative
INTER INTER ‘between’ (spatial)
INTR INTR INTR intransitive
INV INV inverse
IPFV IPFV IPFV imperfective
IRR IRR irrealis
JUSS jussive
JONCT LNK linker
LOC LOC LOC LOC locative
LOG LOG logophoric
M M M(ASC) M masculine
MOY MID middle voice
MNS means (semantic role)
MODE (unspecified) mood
MSD masdar
MULT multiplicative
N noun (capital)
N- N_ non- (e.g. N_PST nonpast)
INACP NACP unaccomplished
NARR past (tense) narrative
NEG NEG NEG NEG negation, negative
N N N(EU) NEU neuter
NOBV NOBV non-obviative
NOM NOM NOM NOM nominative
NPR proper noun
NUM numeral
VNF NVF non-finite verbal form
NZN nominaliaation
NMLZ NZR nominalizer
O{1,2,3}{S,P} O{PER}{NB} object’s index e.g. ‘O1SG’
OBJ OBJ OBJ object
OBL OBL OBL OBL oblique
OBV OBV obviative
OPT OPT OPT optative
ORD ordinal (numeral)
P P patient-like arg. of trans. V
PREP P preposition (majuscule)
PARTF PARTF partitive
PASS PASS passive
PAT PAT patient
PEJ pejorative
PERS PERS personnal
PFV PFV PERF PFV perfective (aspect)
PFX prefix
PL PL PL PL pluriel
POL polite
POS POS positive (polarity)
POSS POSS POSS possessive
POST POST postposition
POSTESS postessive
POT POT potential
PRED PRED predicative
PREP PREP preposition (capital)
PRF PRF PARF PRF perfect / parfait
PRO PRO personal pronoun
PROG PROG PROG PROG progressive
PROH PROH prohibitive
PROLAT prolative
PROX PROX proximal
PRS PRES PRES PRS present
PRET PRT preterit
PRV PREV PRV preverb
PST PST PAS PST past
PTCL PTCL particle
PTCP PTCP PART PTCP , _PT participle
PT participle X e.g. ‘PRSPT’
PURP PURP purposive
Q Q Q question marker
QM QM quantity marker
QUOT QUOT quotative
RECP RECIPR RECP reciprocal
REDUP RED reduplication
REFL REFL REFL REFL reflexive
REL REL REL REL relative
RES RES RES resultative
RESP RESP mark of respect
RFX interfix
RLS RLS realis
S S single arg. of intrans. V
S sentence (capital)
S{1,2,3}{S,P} S{PER}{NB} subject’s index e.g. ‘S2PL’
SBJ SUBJ SBJ subject
SBJF SBJF future subjunctive
SBJP SBJP past subjunctive
SBJV SBJ SBJV subjunctive
SFX suffix
SG SG SG SG singular
SPRX speaker proximate
SUB SUB ‘sub’ localisation
SUB SUB subordination marker
SUBELAT subdelative (spatial)
SUBESS subessive (spatial)
SUBLAT sublative (spatial)
SUPER superlative (degree)
SUPESS SUPESS superessive (spatial)
SUPLAT superlative (spatial)
TAM TAM tense, aspect, mode
TOP TOP TOP topic
TR TR transitive
TRANS translative (become X)
TRSLAT translative (across, kroz…)
TRANS TRZN transitivization
TRZR transitivizer
UCNT uncountable
V verb (capital)
VOC VOC vocative
VOIX VOX voice
VZN verbalization
VZR verbalizer
XCLM exclamative, exclamation

Comments

  1. Within glosses, abbreviations are in small caps; syntactic categories in the text are in capitals (A, N, etc.).
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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’.
  5. 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).
  6. 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.
Table 2. After Kracht (2002) and Mel'čuk (1994: 280-82)
eng lat Static Coinitial Cofinal
in in inessive elative illative
on super superessive delative superlative
under sub subessive subelative sublative
at ad adessive ablative allative
behind post postessive postelative postlative
before ante antessive ante_elative antelative
near apud apudessive apudelative apudlative
among inter interessive interelative interlative
across trans transessif translatif
around circum circumessive circumlative

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.

Other informations

Numeral types {appellative denumeral, approximative denumeral, cardinal numeral, collective denumeral, distributive denumeral, multiplicative denumeral, ordinal denumeral, element counting (subpartitive) denumeral, time measuring denumeral}

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.