This page lists common abbreviations for grammatical terms that are used in linguistic interlinear glossing.
Abbreviations beginning with N- (a common prefix for non-) or ending with -Z (a common suffix for -izer) may not be listed separately. For example, NPST non-past and TRZ transitivizer are not listed, as they are composable from N- non- + PST past and TR transitive + -Z -izer.
| Gloss | Meaning |
|---|---|
| › | direction of transitivity or possession (2›3 may mean 2 acts on 3; 1sg›sg may mean a 1sg possessor and a singular possessum) |
| 0 | zero (null), covert form (such as gender in a language where the word doesn't show it) |
| 1 | first person |
| 2 | second person |
| 3 | third person |
| A | agent-like argument of canonical transitive verb |
| ABE | abessive case (AKA caritive case or privative case: 'without') |
| ABL | ablative case ('from') |
| ABS | absolutive case |
| ACC | accusative case |
| ACCOM | accompanier |
| ACT | active voice, actor role |
| ADJ | adjective |
| ADE | adessive case ('at'; more specific than LOC) |
| ADM | admonitive mood (warning) |
| ADV | adverb(ial), adverbial case |
| AFF | affirmative mood |
| AG, AGT | agentive case (cf ACT) |
| AGR | agreement |
| ALL | allative case ('to') |
| AL, ALLOC | allocutive agreement |
| ALIEN | alienable possession |
| AN | animate gender (cf R) |
| AND | andative (going towards: cf venitive) |
| ANT | anterior tense (used for PRF in some traditions) |
| ANTE | antessive case ('before') |
| ANTIC | anticausative |
| ANTIP, AP | antipassive voice |
| AOR | aorist (= PFV or PST.PFV) |
| APP | apposition |
| APL, APPL | applicative voice |
| APPR | apprehensive mood |
| APRX | approximative |
| ART | article |
| ASP | aspect |
| ASS | associative case (= COM), assumptive mood, assertive |
| AT | agent trigger (= AV agent voice) |
| ATT | attenuative; attributive (= ATTR) |
| AUD | auditory evidential |
| AUG | augmentative |
| AUX | auxiliary verb |
| B | core benefactive |
| BE | 'be' verb (a conflation of EXIST and COP) |
| BEN | benefactive case ('for') |
| C | common gender; complementizer |
| CAP | (cap)ability, modal case |
| CAU, CAUS | causative |
| CENT | centric case |
| CF | counterfactual conditional |
| CIRC | circumfix |
| CIT | citation form |
| CL, CLF | classifier |
| CNJ | conjunction (= CONJ) |
| CNSQ | consequential |
| COL | collective plural |
| COM | comitative case ('together with') |
| COMP | comparative; complementizer |
| COMPL, CPL | completive aspect |
| CONC | concessive |
| COND | conditional mood |
| CONJ | conjunction (= CNJ) |
| CONN | connective particle |
| CONT, CTN | continuative aspect |
| CNTR | contrastive |
| COP | copula |
| COR | coreference |
| CRAS | crastinal tense ('tomorrow') |
| CRS | current relevance marker (as in the perfect) |
| CVB | converb |
| D | core dative case |
| DAT | dative case |
| DE | different event, change of event (cf DS) |
| DEC, DECL | declarative mood |
| DEF | definite |
| DEI, DEIX | deixis, deictic |
| DEL | delayed imperative (a command to do s.t. later) |
| DEL | delative case ('off of'), deliberative mood |
| DEM | demonstrative |
| DEO | deontic mood |
| DEP | dependent (as in DEP.FUT) |
| DES, DESI | desiderative mood |
| DEST | destinative aspect |
| DET | determiner |
| DETR | detransitive |
| DH | motion downhill, seaward (cf DR) |
| DIM | diminutive |
| DIR | direct evidential (= EXP); directional (= LAT); direct case |
| DISJ | disjunction |
| DIST | distal demonstrative |
| DISTR | distributive case |
| DITR | ditransitive |
| DLM | delimited |
| DM | discourse marker |
| DO | direct object |
| DR | motion downriver (cf DH) |
| DS | different-subject (change of subject) marker (cf DE) |
| DU | dual number |
| DUB | dubitative mood |
| DUR | durative aspect, continuous aspect |
| DY, DYAD | dyadic |
| DYN | dynamic aspect |
| E | epenthetic morpheme |
| -E | (used to form various -essive cases) |
| ELA | elative case ('out of') |
| EMP | emphatic |
| EPIS | epistemic mood, epistemic modality |
| ERG | ergative case |
| ESS | essive case |
| EV, EVID | evidential |
| EVIT | evitative case (= aversive case) |
| EX, EXCL | exclusive person |
| EXCLAM | exclamative |
| EX.DUR | excessive duration |
| EXIST | existential ('there is') |
| EXO | exocentric case |
| EXP, EXPER | experiential, eyewitness, = direct evidential |
| EXPL | expletive (dummy / meaningless form) |
| F, FEM | feminine gender |
| FACT | factive evidential |
| FAM | familiar register (as the T-V distinction) |
| FIN | finite verb |
| FOC | focus |
| FORM | formal register (as the T-V distinction) |
| FP | final particle (joshi) |
| FR, FREQ | frequentative aspect |
| FMR | former, deceased |
| FUT | future tense |
| G | gender (G4 = the 4th gender) |
| GEN | genitive case |
| GER | gerund |
| GNO | gnomic (generic) aspect |
| GT | goal trigger (Austronesian; = GV goal voice) |
| HAB | habitual aspect |
| HBL | humble register |
| HEST | hesternal tense ('yesterday') |
| HIST | historic(al), as in historical present or past historic tense |
| HOD | hodiernal tense ('today') |
| HON | honorific |
| HORT | hortative, |
| HSY | hearsay, reported evidential |
| HUM | human, anthropic gender (cf. HBL; R) |
| HYP | hypothetical mood |
| I | inflected |
| ID | identical (~ NID) |
| IDENTIF | identifiable |
| IDEO | ideophone (≈ MIM) |
| IGNOR | ignorative |
| ILL | illative case ('into') |
| IMM | immediate, as in immediate imperative mood, near future tense |
| IMP | imperative mood |
| IMPERF | imperfect (= PST.IPFV) |
| IMPREC | imprecative mood |
| IMPRS | impersonal verb |
| IN, INCL | inclusive person |
| INAL | inalienable possession |
| INAN | inanimate gender |
| INCH, INCHO, INCEP | inchoative aspect, inceptive aspect |
| INCL | inclusive person (= IN) |
| IND | indicative mood |
| INDF, NDEF | indefinite |
| INE | inessive case ('in') |
| INF | infinitive |
| INFER, INFR | inferential evidential |
| INEL | inelative case ('from within') |
| INS | instrumental case |
| INT | intensifier; interrogative (= Q) |
| INTEN | intentional |
| INTR, NTR | intransitive (covers an intransitive case for the S argument) |
| INV | inverse |
| IO | indirect object |
| IPFV | imperfective aspect (= NPFV) |
| IRR | irrealis mood |
| IS | indirect speech |
| ITER | iterative aspect |
| JUS | jussive mood |
| -L | (used to form various -lative cases) |
| L2 | second language (code-switching) |
| LAT | lative case (= MVMT, direction) |
| LD | locative case + directional |
| LK | linker |
| LOC | locative case (includes essive case) |
| LOG | logophoric |
| M, MASC | masculine gender |
| MAN | manner |
| MID | middle voice |
| MIM | mimetic (≈ IDEO) |
| MIR | (ad)mirative |
| MOD | mood, modal, modal case |
| MOM | single action verb (not iterative) |
| MVT | movement |
| N, NEUT | neuter gender |
| N- | non- (e.g. NSG non-singular, NPST non-past, NF non-feminine) |
| NEG | negation, negative |
| NH | non-human |
| NMZ, NZ, NOMI | nominalizer/nominalization |
| NOM | nominative case |
| NS | non-subject (Latin 'oblique case') |
| NTR, INTR | intransitive (covers an intransitive case for the S argument) |
| NUM | numeral |
| O | patient-like argument (object) of canonical transitive verb (= P) |
| OBJ, OB | object |
| OBL | oblique case |
| OBV | obviative |
| OPT | optative mood |
| P | patient-like argument of canonical transitive verb (= O) |
| P | pre-, post- (P.HOD prehodiernal) |
| PART | participle (= PTCP,PCP); particle (= PTCL); partitive case (= PTV) |
| PAS, PASS | passive voice |
| PAT | patientive (= UND) |
| PA, PAU | paucal number |
| PEG | pegative case (a special case for the giver) |
| PER | perlative case ('per', using) |
| PERF, PRF | perfect (= RET) |
| PERS | personal |
| PFV | perfective aspect |
| PL | plural |
| PLU, PLUR | pluractional |
| PM | phrase marker, predicate marker |
| PN, PRO | pronoun |
| PO | primary object |
| POL | polite register |
| POS, POSS | possessive marker |
| POST | postposition, postpositional case |
| POSTE | postessive case ('after') |
| POT | potential mood (a possible conditional) |
| PP | past / passive participle |
| PPP | past passive participle |
| PPFV | past perfective |
| PR | proper noun |
| PRED | predicative |
| PREC | precative mood (requests) |
| PREP | preposition, prepositional case |
| PRES, PRS | present tense |
| PRESP | present participle |
| PRET, PRT | preterite (= PFV.PST) |
| PRF, PERF | perfect (= RET) |
| PRS, PRES | present tense |
| PROB | probability |
| PROG | progressive aspect |
| PROH | prohibitive mood ('don't!') |
| PROL | prolative case (= VIA) |
| PROP | propositive mood |
| PROSP, PRSP | prospective aspect |
| PROT | protasis |
| PROX | proximal/proximate |
| PST | past tense |
| PT | patient trigger |
| PTCL, PTC | particle |
| PTCP,PCP | participle |
| PTV | partitive case ('some of') |
| PURP | purposive |
| Q | question word or particle (= INT) |
| QUOT | quotative case or mood (marks quoted speech) |
| R | rational gender (thinking beings) |
| REAL | realis mood |
| REC | recent past tense |
| RECP | reciprocal voice |
| REF | referential |
| REFL | reflexive voice |
| REL | relative(izer) |
| REM | remote past tense |
| REP | reported evidential (= HSY); repetitive (cf ITER) |
| RES | resultative; resumptive |
| RET | retrospective (synonym for 'perfect' in some traditions) |
| RFR | referential |
| S | single argument of canonical intransitive verb (cf CIT) |
| SBJ, SUB | subject |
| SBJV, SJV | subjunctive mood |
| SE | same event (cf SS) |
| SEM | semelfactive aspect ('once') |
| SENS | sensory evidential mood (= VIS+AUD |
| SEQ | sequential |
| SG | singular (but 1.SG = 1s, 3MASC.SG = 3ms) |
| SGV | singulative number |
| SIM | simultaneous aspect; similative |
| SJV, SBJV | subjunctive mood |
| SPEC | specifier; speculative mood |
| SS | same-subject (cf SE) |
| STAT, STV | stative aspect, stative verb |
| SUB, SU | subject |
| SUBR, SUBORD, SBRD, SR | subordinator |
| SUBE | subessive case ('under') |
| SUBL | sublative case ('onto', 'down onto') |
| SUP(L) | superlative (SUPL); supine; supplicative |
| SUPE | superessive case ('on') |
| -T | trigger (used for AT, PT) |
| TAM | tense, aspect, or mood |
| TEL | telic aspect (cf PFV) |
| TEMP | temporal case |
| TERM | terminative case |
| TNS | tense |
| TOP | topic |
| TR, TRANS | transitive verb |
| TRANSL | translative case (becoming) |
| TRI | trial number |
| TRN | trans-numeral (neither SG nor PL) |
| TVF | truth-value focus |
| U | uninflected |
| UH | motion uphill, inland (cf UR) |
| UND | undergoer role (cf PAT) |
| UR | motion upriver (cf UH) |
| USIT | usitative |
| V, VB | verb(al) |
| VBZ | verbalizer |
| VD | verb, ditransitive |
| VEN | venitive (coming towards; cf andative) |
| VER | veridical mood (a certain conditional) |
| VIA | vialis case |
| VIS | visible, visual |
| VI | verb, intransitive |
| VN | verbal noun |
| VOC | vocative case |
| VOL | volitive mood |
| VT | verb, transitive |
| WH.Q | wh-question |
| -Z | -(al)izer (e.g. TRZ transitivizer) |
| ZO | zoic gender (animals) |
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