the Leipzig Glossing Rule - CNRS

ABBREVIATION OF MORPHOLOGICAL GLOSSES 

These abbreviations have been compiled from three main sources : the Leipzig Glossing 

Rules, (Corbett 2000; Corbett 2006) and (Creissels 2006). There is no pretense that they 

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 used for 

a manual of morphology in progress (in French). Abbreviations in orange 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 Corbett Creissels Manual 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 adjective 

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

Morphological abbreviations 

BEN BENEF BENEF BEN benefactive 

C consonant 

CAR caritative 

CARD cardinal (number) 

CAUS CAUS causative 

CFX circumfix 

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 complementizer 

COMPAR comparative 

COMPL COMPL completive 

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 dative 

D{1,2,3} D{PER} dative object index ‘D2PL’ 

DECAUS DECAUS decausative 

DECL DECL DECL declarative 

DEF DEF DEF definite 

DELAT delative 

DEM DEM demonstrative 

DET DET determinant 

DIM DIM diminutive 

DIR DIR directionnel 

DIR DIR direct 

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 INDF indefinite 

INESS INESS INESS inessive 

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


MEL meliorative 

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 

VNF NFN non-finite verbal form 

NOBV NOBV non-obviative 

NOM NOM NOM NOM nominative 

NPR proper noun 

NUM numeral 

NZN nominalization 

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 

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 plural 

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 

PRO PRO personal pronoun 

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 ; P_ 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 

SUBDELAT subdelative (spatial) 

SUBESS subessive (spatial) 

SUBLAT sublative (spatial) 

SUPER superlative (degree) 

SUPESS SUPESS superessive (spatial) 

SUPLAT superlative (spatial) 

TAM TAM tense, aspect, mode 

TERM terminative 

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

Table 1. List of abbreviations 

Comments 


XCLM exclamative, exclamation 

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’ by 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 purposes, series have been 

constituted : 

— all affixes end with ‘fx’ e.g. afx, sfx, pfx, ifx, rfx, etc. 

— all category changing marks follow the model ‘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 name semantic rules associated to forms. For instance, the semantic rule 

associated with 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, 1 rst person, singular’ 

2. Function slot, person slot, (nominal) class slot (i.e. number): O3:1 = ‘object, 3 rd 

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. 

eng lat Stative Coinitial Cofinal 

in in inessive elative illative 

at ad adessive ablative allative 

on super superessive delative superlative 

under sub subessive subelative sublative 

behind post postessive postelative postlative 

across trans transessive translative 

around circum circumessive circumlative 

Tableau 2. After Kracht 2002.


Abbreviation of languages 

Norm ISO 639-3, which is used by typologists and UNESCO, 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.

the Leipzig Glossing Rule - CNRS

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