get started with POS mark-up

Here are steps you will need with a simple example.

Original text

I was born in Oxford. My father was a history teacher, my mother taught maths.

Tagged at https://ucrel-api.lancaster.ac.uk/claws/free.html using the defaults I got this:

I_PNP was_VBD born_VVN in_PRP Oxford_NP0 ._PUN
My_DPS father_NN1 was_VBD a_AT0 history_NN1 teacher_NN1 ,_PUN my_DPS mother_NN1 taught_VVD maths_NN0 .PUN

Each word has a part of speech tag attached to its right with an underscore: word_tag format.

Step 1. Convert to the best format for WordSmith. that is <tag>word instead of word_tag. Use the Text Converter. Explained here.

That produced this:

<PNP>I <VBD>was <VVN>born <PRP>in <NP0>Oxford <PUN>.

<DPS>My <NN1>father <VBD>was <AT0>a <NN1>history <NN1>teacher <PUN>, <DPS>my <NN1>mother <VVD>taught <NN0>maths <PUN>.

Ignoring tags gives you this very simple word list:

tag word simple wordlist

Step 2. Make a tag file to match the format.

You might include at least these tags: PNP for pronouns, VB* for verb BE, VV* for main verbs, PRP for prepositions,

NN* for nouns, NP* for proper nouns, DPS for possessives, AT* for articles. But do check out the full set of tags at the site where you got the tagging done. The tags must match those in the text, respecting the tag file syntax.

A minimal tag file could be

<PNP> /description "pronoun"

<VB*> /description "BE"

<VV*> /description "verb"

<PRP> /description "preposition"

<NN*> /description "noun"

<NP*> /description "proper noun"

<DPS> /description "possessive"

<AT*> /description "article"

Here is the word list with such a tag file loaded.

tag word simple wordlist with tags