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Argument Types

** These are OLD **

All new data is in NLU & the database. This document will no longer be maintained.

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The Legendary Argument Types are a collection of labels used to group together disambiguated prepositional phrases. For example, there are several ways to say that something happened “because of” something else:

x happened because of y
x happened due to y
x happened persuant to y

all would be tagged as “BecauseOf”

Rather than specifying all of the permuations, argument types give you a convient way to represent the set.

Locations are typically physical spaces like a river, or a street. They can also refer to specific proper nouns like Chicago or the Mississippi River.

For example, “Bob ate on the beach.” would be: (Loc-on, the beach)

Locations also refer to containers or relative spaces like “on a table”, “in the toaster” or “above my head”.

Location

Loc-Above - located at a higher point than something else
Loc-Across - located at an opposing end
Loc-Along - aligned with the flow of a path
Loc-At - located at a specific place or position
Loc-Behind - located behind something else
Loc-Below - located underneath something else
Loc-Between - separating two objects in a region
Loc-Beyond - at or the the further side of something
Loc-Distance - the amount of distance (for 5 miles)
Loc-Down - from a higher point to a lower point
Loc-Encircling - following a circular route
Loc-From - a beginning location or origin
Loc-FurtherAlong - a location that is farther away in the same direction (down the hall)
Loc-InFrontOf - just ahead of
Loc-Inside - within another entity
Loc-On - on top of
Loc-Near - physical object near another one
Loc-NextTo - at the side of, next to, among
Loc-To - a destination or end location
Loc-UpAndDown - indicates a back & forth, or up & down movement
Loc-Touching - one entity touches (is on or against) another entity
Loc-Up - from a lower point to a higher point
Loc-Vicinity - in the vicinity of (look around, look about)

Time

Time-After - happening or continuing after
Time-At - occurring at a specific point in time
Time-Before - the period of time prior to a point (before, until, prior to)
Time-Between - separating two events in time
Time-Duration - an amount-of time
Time-Near - an approximate point in time
Time-Start - the starting time of some activity or event
Time-Rel-Future - a date or time expressed relative to the current time (e.g., in 5 minutes)
Time-Stop - the stopping time of some activity or event

Numbers, Order, Comparison

Nbr-Approximate - an estimated or approximate number
Nbr-Between - the interval separating two numbers/amounts
Nbr-NbrAmt - a number or amount (for 2 miles)
Nbr-Less - lower in quantity or amount
Nbr-LowerLimit - the lower boundary in a range
Nbr-Minus - indicates a reduction by some number
Nbr-More - higher in quantity or amount
Nbr-PctOf - a percent of a whole
Nbr-Plus - indicate an increase by some number
Nbr-Start - an initial value, amount, quantity or ordinal
Nbr-UpperLimit - the upper boundary in a range
Ord-HigherThan - indicates some attribute was higher than another (e.g., importance, prominence, etc.)
Ord-LowerThan - indicates some attribute was lower than another (e.g., importance, prominence, etc.)

State

State-Be - a state of something (past, present, future)
State-Continuing - a state that is past the start and before the end
State-End - a final state or configuration
State-Start - an initial state, or attribute of an entity

Agent

Agent-Accompanier - an agent with another agent
Agent-ActedOn - an agent being affected, often the direct object [to do]
Agent-AskingSaying - an agent asking, demanding or saying something
Agent-Described - an agent being described (is X, has Y, looks Z) [to do]
Agent-Doing - an agent doing an act/event (performed by X), often the Subject
Agent-InControl - an agent that exerts control over others (x is under y)
Agent-InfoSource - an agent acting as the source of information
Agent-Opposing - an opposing agent in a competition, fight, etc. (X played against Y)
Agent-Possessing - an agent that “has” or possesses an item
Agent-Receiving - a recipient, receiver of something (flowers were for Y), often the Ind Object
Agent-Role - an agent acting in a role (as a child)

Sets, Elements, Membership

Set-Including - elements or members of a set (including X and Y)
Set-Excluding - omitting a member in a set (besides x; except x, without x, …)

Object

Obj-With-Part - an object that has a part or member (salad with cheese)
Obj-Target - an object that is the target (shot at the can)
Obj-Attr-With - an object that has an attribute (the boy with freckles)
Obj-Attr-WithOut - an object that does not have an attribute (the boy without freckles)
Obj-Instr-Used - an object / instrument used to do something (ate it with a fork)

Events & Actions

Event-Act - an act or event that one participated in (in the school play)

Topics, Content, Items

Communication-Unit - some written or spoken unit
Compare-Item - used to distinguish between two people or things (X from Y)
Compare-Set - a comparison between two or more entities, states or events (between x, y & z)
DifferentFrom - Something is considered different from something else
InExchangeFor - a substitute or swap (trade X for Y)
RelativeTo - a relative comparison to the norm.
SimilarTo - one item is considered similar to another item
Source - the origin or source of something (from his heart)
Topic - discussion of ‘what’; regarding; on the topic of

Portions, Types, Elements (x of y)

Measure-of-Entity - a measure of some entity (quart of milk)
Container-of-Entity - a container of some entity (box of crayons)
Type-of-Entity - a type/kind/species of an entity (a type of animal)
Attr-of-Entity - an attribute of an entity (appearance of the sky) [X has-a Y]
Role-of-Entity - role responsible for an entity (designer of the car), (father of the bride)
Event-of-Entity - an event that occurs to an entity (evaporation of water)
Consists-of-Elements - “Made-Of” synset; (consists of two varieties)

Purpose, Function, Reason

BecauseOf - a reason (because, because of, due to)
Considering - to consider the circumstances (considering X, )
Despite - without being affected by something (despite X, )
MeansMedium - the means or mechanism used to achieve something (by doing X, via)
Regardless - not taking into account; irrelevant

Disposition

Disp-Against - not in favor of, not supporting
Disp-Manner - indicates a feeling, mannerism, approach (trembled with fear)
Disp-FondOf - likes or loves someone/something
Disp-SupportOf - supports some idea, event, etc.

Conditional

Pending - one entity having a dependency on another (depending on)

Other

BusinessOf - a business or professional activity
DressedIn - how an person (or animal) is dressed

By Preposition

The majority of the argument types are disambiguated by using prepositions. For example, the preposition “about” could mean a topic: “She talked about the movie.”, or it could mean a location: “The dog roamed about the room.” The following section indicates the rules used to disambiguate prepositions to the Legendary Arguement Types.

Wildcard Groupings

In addition to the fine grained argument types, several of the larger categories can be treated as a whole by using the wildcards.

Type	Example
Agent-*	Agents refer to the entity performing an action (usually a person or group).
Loc-*	Locations include places, points and paths.
Nbr-*	This labels any number (1, one, …)
Time-*	This label includes dates, times and durations.

aboard

Loc-On

“They went aboard the boat.”

about

Topic	“She talked about the movie.”
Loc-Vicinity	“The dog roamed about the room.”

above

Loc-Above	“The ceiling was above their head.”
Ord-HigherThan	“They finished above their goal.”

absent

Set-Excluding

“Absent a reason, they marched forward.”

according to

Agent-InfoSource	“According to Tom, panthers eat doves.”
RelativeTo	“The salary will be set according to experience.”

across

{preposition and adverb}

Loc-Across

“I ran across the street.”

after

Time-After	“We went home after the party.”, “He screamed after he stubbed his toe.”
Ord-LowerThan	“Her winning came after her health.”

against

Disp-Against	“Bob is against the war.”, “He went against the wishes of his teacher.”
Agent-Opposing	“We played against Germany.”
Loc-NextTo	“The cup was against his dish.”

ahead of

Time-Before	“Sally finished ahead of Susan.”
Loc-InFrontOf	“Bob went ahead of us.”
Ord-HigherThan	“She placed duty ahead of her safety.”

along

{preposition and adverb}

Loc-Along

“We drove along the beach.”

along with

Set-Including

“We ate a burger along with fries.”

alongside

Loc-NextTo

“The dogs alongside their owners ate bones.”

among, amongst

Set-Including	“Susan was among the winners.”, “Susan was among the top achievers.”
Loc-NextTo	“The weeds are among the flowers.”

apart from

Set-Excluding

“We all had pie apart from John.”

around

Nbr-Approximate	“There are around 15 goats.”
Loc-Vicinity	“There are many farms around the county.”
Loc-Encircling	“He walked around the block.”	“He put his arms around her.”

as

Agent-Role

“He worked as a cook.”

as of

Time-Start

“As of Monday, I begin my new job.”

as few entity as, as little entity as

Nbr-LowerLimit

“You should have as few cookies as possible.”

as few as, as little as

Nbr-LowerLimit

“He ate as little as 2 cookies”

as much entity as, as many entity as

Nbr-UpperLimit

“You can have as many cookies as you want.”

as much as, as many as

Nbr-UpperLimit

“He ate as many as 8 cookies”

at

Obj-Target	“He shot a gun at the can.”
Loc-At	“My brother was at his house.”
Time-At	“The movie starts at 10pm”
Nbr-NbrAmt	a specific number or amount: “Prices started at $5.”
State-End	“Their victory put them at ease.”
Agent-AskingSaying	“The gun was shot at Susan’s request.”

atop

Loc-On

“The cows were atop the hill.”

barring

Set-Excluding

“Barring an accident, we should win.”

before

Time-Before	“Sally finished before Susan.”, “We prayed before we ate dinner.”
Loc-InFrontOf	“Bob went before the panel.”
Ord-HigherThan	“She placed duty before her safety.”

behind

Loc-Behind	“The catsup was behind the mustard.”
InSupportOf	“We were behind the election of the mayor.”
Ord-LowerThan	“He finished behind his opponent.”

below

Loc-Below	“He went below sea level.”
Nbr-Less	“The temperature went below 35 degrees.”

beneath

Loc-Below	“The wrestler was beneath his opponent.”
Ord-LowerThan	“He finished beneath his opponent.”

beside

Loc-NextTo	“The car is beside the grass and the house.”
Set-Excluding	“He likes dogs beside his own.”, “She bought art from artist beside Susan.”

besides

Set-Excluding

“I have no other family besides my sister.”

between

Loc-Between	“The car is between the cones.”
Loc-Between	“The car is between the grass and the house.”
Time-Between	“The concert starts between 7pm and 9pm.”
Nbr-Between	“He scored between 75 and 90.”
Set-Including	“Between Bob and Susan, they had enough money.”, “Between USA and Mexico, …”
Compare-Set	“The links between cancer and smoking continue to grow.”

beyond

Loc-Beyond	“They travelled beyond the ocean.”
Time-After	“The party lasted beyond my expectations.”, “The party lasted beyond midnight.”
Ord-HigherThan	“His expertise was well beyond mine.”, “They went beyond what was asked of them”

but

Set-Excluding

“Everyone liked it but Susan.”

by

“By Monday, he had driven by car made by toyota by the store that measured 100 feet by 100 feet.”

Loc-Near	“We drove by the mall.”, “The spoon was by the fork.”
Time-Before	“By 2pm, over ten people had visited.”
Nbr-NbrAmt	an amount beyond another amount “We won by 5 points.”, “We won by 5.”
MeansMedium	“He went by bus.”, “They won by out running their opponent.”
Agent-Doing	“The gun was shot by Susan.”

concerning

Topic

“Concerning the war, we are optimistic.”

considering

Considering

“Considering our handicap, we played great.”

counting

Set-Including

“Counting my aunt, there were four of us.”

depending on

Pending

“Depending on the budget, we might eat steak.”

despite

Despite

“Despite the rain, they stayed dry.”

down

Loc-Down

“Tears streamed down his face.”

due to

BecauseOf

“Due to the budget, we had to fire employees.”

during

Time-Duration

“During the parade, we cheered.”

except

Set-Excluding

“Except Tom, we all had a good time.”

except for

Set-Excluding

“Except for the dent, the car was in good shape.”

excepting

Set-Excluding

“Excluding the dent, the car was in good shape.”

excluding

Set-Excluding

“Excluding Julie, the girls ate pizza.”

following

Time-After

“Following the robbery, we bought guns.”

for

Loc-To	“We are leaving for the beach.”
Loc-Distance	“He ran for 5 miles.”
Obj-Target	“We looked for a pencil.”
Time-Duration	“He studied for an hour.”
Nbr-NbrAmt	“She ran for a mile.”
Agent-Receiving	“The flowers were for Susan.”
BecauseOf	“Eileen is thankful for their support.”
InExchangeFor	“He exchanged the beer for wine.”
RelativeTo	“Susan is tall for her age.” “It is hot for this time of year”

from

Loc-From	“Bob went from Chicago to Dallas.”
State-Start	“Bob went from happy to sad.”
Nbr-Start	“His salary went from $50k to $60k.”
Time-Start	“The movie goes from 3pm to 5pm.”
CompareItem	“Is Portuguese very different from Spanish?”, “I can’t tell apples from oranges.”, “I cant’ distinguish one twin from the other.”
Source	“Steel is made from iron.”, “She felt sick from the fish.” “She felt sick from tiredness.”

given

“given” as a preposition means, “considering the circumstances”. Examples: “Given the weather, we stayed rather cool.”, “Given his position, he played fair.” Unfortunately, “given” is being tagged by all PoS classifiers as a verb. Rule: Due to misclassification, we’ll handle this with the MWE. “Given the” will swap to “considering”

in

Loc-Inside	“I live in London.”, “The carrots are in the refrigerator.”
Time-At	“We met in March.”
Time-Rel-Future	“We will meet in 15 minutes”
DressedIn	“He was dressed in a tuxedo.”
Event-Act	“She was in the school play.”
MeansMedium	“He spoke in French.”
BusinessOf	“He was in plastics.”, “Her career was in medicine.”

in front of

Loc-InFrontOf	“The dog was in front of the house.”
Ord-HigherThan	“Tom finished in front of Bob in the race.”

including

Set-Including

“She speaks several languages including French and German”

inside

“He went inside the store.”
OutOfScope	cognitive state, “He was mad inside.”

inside of

Loc-Inside	“The pizza was placed inside of the oven.”
Nbr-Less	“He ran the mile inside of 6 minutes.”

instead of

InsteadOf

// as a substitute for, or in place of “She took a nap instead of going to work.”

into

State-End	“The party turned into a mess.” //Default
Loc-Inside	“We went into the city.”, “He put the chicken into the oven.”
Loc-Touching	“The wind blew into his face.”
Topic	“They inquired into our position.”, “She requested insight into what is involved.”
Disp-FondOf	“Bob was into surfing.”, “Bob was into Sally.”
OUT OF SCOPE	Division: “3 goes into 4”

irrespective of

Regardless

“They went to Europe irrespective of his grades.”

less

Set-Excluding	“We all went to the beach less Bob.”
Nbr-Minus	“Pay his salary, less what he owes us.”, “Pay his salary, less 5$.”

like

“He looked like Shrek and enjoyed comedies like Shrek.”

SimilarTo	compares/contrasts attributes. prior triple will not have a DOBJ
ForExample	identifies a specific example, prior triple will have a DOBJ

minus

Nbr-Minus	“What’s ninety three minus seven?”
Set-Excluding	“Everyone liked it minus Susan.”

near, near to

Loc-Near	“The cat was near the window.”
Time-Near	“I was done near the end of August.”
Agent-Described	“He was near to death.”
Nbr-Approximate	“Temperatures near 1000 degrees.”

next to

Loc-NextTo	“The eggs are next to the milk.”
Relative-To	“Next to her, I felt like a fraud.”
Ord-LowerThan	“Next to air, water is most important for survival.”

notwithstanding

Despite

“notwithstanding the evidence, the jury will not reach a verdict”

of

Type-of-Entity	“Monkeys are a common type of primate.”
Attr-of-Entity	“The sleeves of his jacket are leather.”
Event-of-Entity	“The death of the president shocked the country.”
Consists-of-Elements	“The wall was made of bricks.”
Nbr-Pct-of	“75% of patients saw improvement.”
Nbr-NbrAmt	“3 of 10 students got an A in the class.”

off

Loc-From

“We got off the train.”

Rule: “off” always resolves to “Loc-From”

NOTE: off is extremely common for phrasal verbs (750 pv’s ending in off)

on

Loc-On	“The plate was on the table.” “She had a scratch on her arm.”
Topic	“I’m reading a book on World War II.”
Set-Including	“She was on the board of directors.”
Obj-Target	“They marched on Washington.” “His eyes were fixed on the dark figure.”
Time-At	“The party is on this Friday.” “It happened on a warm evening.”
State-Continuing	“He was on the way to see his mother.” “He was on morphine for the surgery.”
Agent-Possessing	“He only had 10 dollars on him.”

onto

Loc-On

“He placed the cup onto the coaster.”

opposite

Loc-From

“The cat sat opposite the cabinet.”

other than

Set-Excluding

“He didn’t know anything other than baseball.”

out of

Consists-of-Elements

“The wall is made out of bricks.”

Nbr-NbrAmt	“3 of 10 students got an A in the class.”
State-Is	“They had run out of cash.”
Set-Excluding	“Mexico has been knocked out of World Cup contention.”

outside, outside of

{preposition and adverb}

Loc-Vicinity	“There was a boy outside the door.”
Set-Excluding	“Critics outside the government have much to say.”
before/after	“The shop is not staffed outside operating hours.”

over

Loc-Above	“There were flames over the forest.”
Order-HigherThan	“He ranked over him.”
Time-Duration	“He gained the money over 20 years.”
Topic	“There was a heated debate over gun control.”
Means-Medium	“A voice came over the loudspeaker.”

past

Loc-Beyond	“The trail is located past the trailhead.”
Loc-NextTo	“He craned his neck as they drove past the cheerleaders.”
Time-After	“My watch read 20 past 3.”
Agent-Described	“He was past caring about anything.”

pending

Time-Before

“They were released on bail pending an appeal.”

per

Nbr-NbrAmt

“He charges 2$ per square foot.”

plus

Nbr-Plus

“The camp had 200 campers, plus 20 counsellors.”

previous to

Time-Before

“The month previous to publication.”

prior to

Time-Before

“The month prior to publication.”

pursuant to

State-Is

“The authorities applied for care orders pursuant to section 31 of the law.”

regarding

Topic

“Your recent letter regarding the above proposal.”

regardless of

Regardless

“The allowance is paid regardless of age or income.”

relative to

Topic	“We must consider the location of the hospital relative to its catchment area.”
Compare-Item	“Studies have shown that girls run slower relative to boys.”

respecting

Topic

“He began to have serious worries respecting his car.”

round

Loc-Encircling

“We searched the area round the school.”

save, save for, saving

Set-Excluding

“No one needed to know save herself.”

since

Time-Between

“She has suffered from cystic fibrosis since 1984.”

subsequent to

Time-After

“The theory was developed subsequent to the earthquake of 1906.”

than

{preposition & conjunction}

Compare-Item	“He was much larger than the other man.”
Set-Excluding	“He claims not to own anything other than his home.”

thanks to

BecauseOf

“It’s thanks to you that he’s in this mess.”

through, thru

Loc-Across	“They walked through the forest.”
Time-Duration	“They will be here Monday through Friday.”
Agent-Doing	“He flipped through the pages of the book.”
Means-Medium	“Malaria can be spread through mosquitos.”

throughout, through out

Loc-At	“It had repercussions throughout Europe.”
Time-Duration	“She was a faithful member of the church throughout her life”

till, until

Time-Before

“The store is open till 8pm.”

to

Loc-To	“Twenty miles to the South.”
Time-Before	“It’s 5 to 10.”
State-End	“His face went from happy to sad.”
Agent-Receiving	“You were unkind to her.”
Nbr-NbrAmt	“This car gets 20 miles to the gallon”
MeansMedium	“He left his dog tied to a sign outside.”
Compare-Item	“This place is nothing compared to what it used to be.”

touching

Topic

“We made discoveries touching the neglected traditions of the London Boroughs.”

toward, towards

Loc-To	“We ran towards the abandoned house.”
Time-Before	“We should finish towards the end of April.”
Obj-Target	“He was warm and tender towards her.”

under

Loc-Below	“He went under the boat.”
Nbr-Less	“The temperature went under 35 degrees.”
Agent-InControl	“I was under his control.”, “The city was ruled under Mayor Bill.”
State-Be	“The contract was under review.”

underneath

Loc-Below

“The cat food was underneath the table.”

unlike, not like

DifferentFrom

“Jan was unlike her mother.”

until

Time-Before

“You have until 3pm to get it done.”

up

Loc-Up	“She climbed up a flight of steps.”
Loc-FurtherAlong	“She went up the street.”

up against

Loc-Touching

“Bob was pressed up against the wall.”

others seem idiomatic: “up against a deadline”

up and down

Loc-UpAndDown

“Bob walked up and down the hall.”

up for

State-Is

“The contract is up for renewal.”

up to

Nbr-UpperLimit	“You can have up to four cookies.”
Time-Stop	“You can stay out up to 11pm.”
Agent-Decider	“The choice was up to Bill.”
Loc-To	“I could reach up to his nose.”

upwards of, upward of

Nbr-UpperLimit

“They had upward of 50 pounds of sand.”

versus

Agent-Opposing	“The USA versus Mexico was a great match.”
Compare-Item	“He weighed the pros and cons of vegatables versus fruits”

via

MeansMedium

“He went to Chicago via I-55.”

vis-à-vis, vis-a-vis

RelativeTo

“The dollar was strong vis-à-vis other currencies.”

while

“While” is rarely used as a preposition; it’s treated a discourse connective

with

Agent-Accompanier	“I ate with with Bob.”
Obj-Accompanier	“I ate a burger with cheese.”
Obj-Instr-Used	“He ate it with a fork.”
Agent-Opposing	“He fought with Tom.”
Agent-Receiving	“Leave the ball with Tom.”
Disp-Manner	“He trembled with fear.”
Loc-Along	“She swam with the current.”

with reference to, with regard to, with respect to

These are handled as a multiword entity; Idiom swap = “regarding”

with the exception of

These are handled as a multiword entity; Idiom swap = “excluding”

within

Loc-Inside	“The fire spread within the building.”
Nbr-UpperLimit	“She lives within a 2 miles.”
Time-Before	“Be home within an hour.”

without

Set-Excluding	“They went to church without him.”
Obj-Attr-WithOut	“The boy without freckles ate pizza.”

Credit: Our inspiration for prepositional phrase disambiguation came from “The Preposition Project”. For more information, see: http://www.clres.com/cgi-bin/onlineTPP/find_prep.cgi