Dependency Relations

Root & Other Relations

The last of the six relation families is a mixed group. It holds the root, which every tree has, and punctuation, which no tree shows. It also holds four less common relations and one label that only a person adds.

What you’ll learn

Find the root of a sentence, even one with no verb, and mark it with one click
Recognise intj, parataxis, dep and meta, and say when each one appears
Explain why a tree has fewer boxes than its sentence has tokens
Tell a parser label apart from a person's correction

The root

ROOT Root of the sentence

The one word in a sentence with no head. Everything else hangs from it, directly or through a chain, which makes it the first thing to find when you read a tree.

How the parser decides: it almost always picks the main verb. The root has no word above it, so the parser records it as its own head. That is why the tree marks it with a short arrow from above, labelled ROOT, and not with an arc from another word.

Find the main verb
In Thunder rumbled. the only verb is rumbled, so it is the root.
Skip the helping verbs
When had, was, will or must comes before another verb, it is a helping verb, and the root is the main verb after it. In Children, we must hurry. the root is hurry.
No verb? Take the main word
The word the others describe is the root, as in What a disaster! below.

“Thunder rumbled.”

nsubj Nominal subject
ROOT Root of the sentence

The smallest tree there is: a root and one dependent

The root is not always a verb. An exclamation such as What a disaster! has no verb. The parser makes the noun disaster the root and attaches What and a to it as det.

“What a disaster!”

No verb anywhere — the noun becomes the root

Interjections, inserted comments, the fallback label and list markers

The parser produces all four relations below, but Grammify’s sentences rarely contain them. The one you are most likely to meet is intj, because the polite word please gets it. You will meet the other three less often.

intj Interjection

An interjection, such as oh, hey, wow or please. It stands outside the grammar of the sentence and attaches to the root, usually the main verb.

How the parser decides: the word is tagged UH, the tag for an interjection. The one you will meet most is the polite please, wherever it stands. In Close the window, please, it is the intj of Close.

“Oh, the parcel arrived.”

intj Interjection
det Determiner
nsubj Nominal subject
ROOT Root of the sentence

'Oh' adds nothing to the structure, so it hangs from the root

“Hey, stop that.”

The same relation in front of an imperative

parataxis Parataxis Rare

Two clauses placed side by side, with no linking word such as and or because between them. The name means “placing side by side”.

How the parser decides: it uses parataxis mainly for a short comment such as I think or she said in the middle of a clause. Clauses joined by a semicolon get ccomp instead: in I was tired; I went to bed, was is a ccomp of went.

“He is, I believe, honest.”

nsubj Nominal subject
ROOT Root of the sentence
parataxis Parataxis
acomp Adjectival complement

'I believe' interrupts the main clause without being part of it

“The ferry, I think, left early.”

det Determiner
nsubj Nominal subject
parataxis Parataxis
ROOT Root of the sentence
advmod Adverbial modifier

A comment in the middle of a clause — 'think' is a parataxis of 'left'

dep Unspecified dependency Rare

The label the parser uses when it cannot name the relation. dep means “these two words are connected, but I cannot say how”. It appears when the input is so broken that no ordinary relation fits.

How the parser decides: it uses dep only when nothing else applies. On correct English, dep is a sign that the parse went wrong.

“The what the how.”

det Determiner
dep Unspecified dependency
ROOT Root of the sentence

Deliberately broken input — the parser labels what it cannot analyse

Even broken input rarely produces it. The parser reads Um the thing uh broke. as a normal clause with two intj words, um and uh. In Yes, well, no. it makes Yes the root and gives the other two words intj. It can appear on correct English, though: in Diego, the taxi is here, the name Diego gets dep (see vocative).

meta Meta modifier Rare

Text that is not part of the sentence itself. In Grammify it has one use: the number or letter that marks an item in a list, such as the 1 of 1) Bring a coat. The marker hangs from the root, like a label stuck on the front of the sentence.

How the parser decides: a digit or a single letter at the very start, followed by a closing bracket (1), b)) or, after a digit, a full stop (2.). The marker’s tag is LS, the list item tag. Before a sentence like this is saved, Grammify asks about the marker and offers to remove it, so you will rarely meet meta in an exercise.

“1) Bring a coat.”

meta Meta modifier
ROOT Root of the sentence
det Determiner
dobj Direct object

The list marker '1' is meta and hangs from the root, 'Bring'; the bracket is punctuation and gets no box

A label that only a person puts there

vocative Vocative (direct address) Only from a person’s correction

Direct address — naming the person you are speaking to. Children in Children, we must hurry is not the subject and not a modifier; it is outside the clause entirely.

How the parser decides: it never gives vocative. In Children, we must hurry, it labels Children npadvmod, a noun phrase used like an adverb:

“Children, we must hurry.”

npadvmod Noun phrase as adverbial modifier
nsubj Nominal subject
aux Auxiliary
ROOT Root of the sentence

What the parser actually returns — npadvmod, which is wrong for a direct address

An administrator corrected that label by hand. This is the corrected version:

“Children, we must hurry.”

After the correction — the relation an administrator set, and the one the exercise expects

Punctuation

punct Punctuation Never drawn in a tree

Commas, full stops, question marks and other punctuation marks get this label. It is the most common relation in Grammify’s stored sentences, but no exercise asks you for it.

Where it is left out: the tree has no box and no arc for it. The POS, Tags and Dependencies palettes have no button for it. No exercise lets you select it, and Reed-Kellogg diagrams leave out commas, full stops and question marks.

The word chips below show the tags of punctuation marks too. The exclamation mark has the tag ., the same as a full stop or a question mark:

Well (^UH), (^,, ringed)the (^DT)ferry (^NN)left (^VBD)! (^., ringed)

Teachers and administrators also see punctuation in the Workbench token table, which lists every token. A hyphen inside a word is a punctuation token too: co-captains is three tokens, co, - and captains.

Quick check

Which word is the root of Priya had forgotten her keys? How many clicks does it take to mark it in the Dependencies exercise?
Answer
The root is forgotten. Had comes before another verb, so it is a helping verb (aux), and the root is the main verb after it. It takes one click: choose ROOT and click forgotten. The root is its own head, so there is no second word to click.
The sentence Well, the museum has closed. has seven tokens. How many boxes does its dependency tree have, and which relation does Well get?
Answer
Five boxes. The comma and the full stop are punctuation (punct), and the tree never draws punctuation, so only the five words get boxes. Well is an interjection: it gets intj and hangs from the root, closed.
Which word is the root of The test, I hope, was easy, and which relation does hope get?
Answer
The root is was: the clause is The test was easy, and with a linking verb the verb is the root. I hope is a short comment in the middle of the clause, so hope gets parataxis and hangs from was.
In Good morning, everyone. the word everyone names the people being spoken to. Which label does the parser give it, and when does the Dependencies exercise expect vocative instead?
Answer
The parser gives it npadvmod; it never gives vocative. The exercise grades the stored label, so it expects vocative only after a person (an administrator, or the teacher who added the sentence) corrects the label by hand. The root is morning: the greeting has no verb, so the parser picks the main noun.

Key terms

Root: The one word that depends on no other word; every other word hangs from it, directly or through others. It is usually the main verb. One click in the Dependencies exercise, not two. The children were laughing. Such a long queue!
See: Dependency Parsing
Original value: The parser’s first answer for a word, which Grammify keeps even after a person corrects it. Exercises always grade the corrected value, never this one. Children, we must hurry. — the parser said npadvmod; the corrected value is vocative. Two students were made co-captains. — NN on co, corrected to AFX.
Direct address: Naming the person spoken to. Grammatically outside the clause — which is why a Reed-Kellogg diagram floats it on its own line above the base line. Children, we must hurry. Pass the salt, Maria.
See: Imperatives & Conjunctions
Fallback label: dep, the label the parser uses when no other relation fits. On correct English it means the parse went wrong. The what the how. — broken input, so what gets dep. Diego, the taxi is here. — correct English, but the parser labels the name Diego dep; it is really direct address.

Practice on a real sentence

Find the root first. It is not the first word: skip the opening phrase, choose ROOT and click the main verb once. The sentence has nine words and two punctuation marks. Only the words need an answer, so the counter counts 9 edges (Edges 0/9 on a fresh start).

Loading the practice sentence…