liminfoLeipzig Glossing Rules
Free reference guide: Leipzig Glossing Rules
About Leipzig Glossing Rules
The Leipzig Glossing Rules Reference is a searchable guide to the standard conventions for interlinear morpheme-by-morpheme glossing used in linguistics. It covers the complete set of person and number markers (1SG, 2SG, 3SG, 1PL, 2PL, 3PL, DU for dual, INCL/EXCL for inclusive/exclusive first person plural), grammatical case abbreviations (NOM for nominative, ACC for accusative, DAT for dative, GEN for genitive, LOC for locative, INS for instrumental, ERG for ergative, ABS for absolutive, ABL for ablative, ALL for allative, COM for comitative), and their usage in real language examples from Basque, Turkish, Quechua, and Tagalog.
The tense, aspect, and mood (TAM) section documents temporal markers (PST for past, PRS for present, FUT for future), aspectual distinctions (IPFV for imperfective, PFV for perfective, PRF for perfect, PROG for progressive, HAB for habitual), and modal categories (IND for indicative, SBJV for subjunctive, IMP for imperative, COND for conditional, OPT for optative, IRR for irrealis). Each abbreviation includes morphological examples showing how these categories are marked in agglutinative languages like Turkish with specific affixes (gel-di for PST, gel-iyor for PRS, gel-ecek for FUT).
The reference also covers clause-level and derivational morphology abbreviations (REL for relativizer, COMP for complementizer, NMLZ for nominalizer, CAUS for causative, PASS for passive, REFL for reflexive, APPL for applicative, RECP for reciprocal, COP for copula), discourse markers (TOP for topic, FOC for focus, DEF/INDEF for definiteness), classifier and evaluative morphology (CLF, DIM, AUG), evidentiality markers (EVID, QUOT), and the formal glossing rules including Rule 2 (morpheme separation with hyphens), Rule 3 (uppercase for grammatical labels), Rule 4 (period notation for one-to-many mappings like 3SG.PRS), Rule 5 (fused person-number), and Rule 8 (angle bracket notation for infixes).
Key Features
- Complete person and number glossing abbreviations: 1SG/2SG/3SG, 1PL/2PL/3PL, DU (dual), and INCL/EXCL distinctions for clusivity with Tagalog and Quechua examples
- Full grammatical case system reference: NOM, ACC, DAT, GEN, LOC, INS for accusative languages and ERG/ABS for ergative languages, plus ABL, ALL, COM with Turkish and Basque examples
- Tense-Aspect-Mood (TAM) abbreviation guide: PST/PRS/FUT tense, IPFV/PFV/PRF/PROG/HAB aspect, IND/SBJV/IMP/COND/OPT/IRR mood categories with agglutinative morphology examples
- Clause-level and derivational abbreviations: REL, COMP, NMLZ for clause types, CAUS/PASS/REFL for voice, APPL/RECP for valency operations, COP/AUX for copula and auxiliaries
- Definiteness and discourse markers: DEF/INDEF, DEM/PROX/DIST for demonstratives (including Korean three-way distinction), TOP/FOC for information structure
- Formal Leipzig Glossing Rules: morpheme boundary hyphens (Rule 2), uppercase grammatical labels (Rule 3), period notation for fused categories like 3SG.PRS (Rule 4/5)
- Infix notation with angle brackets (Rule 8) demonstrated with Philippine language examples like Tagalog s<um>ulat for actor-focus marking
- Additional categories: CLF for classifiers, DIM/AUG for evaluative morphology, Q/QUOT/EVID for evidentiality and quotative markers, VOC/INTJ for vocative and interjections
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the Leipzig Glossing Rules and who uses them?
The Leipzig Glossing Rules are a standardized set of conventions for interlinear morpheme-by-morpheme glossing in linguistics, developed at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the University of Leipzig. They are used by linguists worldwide for fieldwork documentation, typological studies, and published grammars. The rules standardize how morpheme boundaries are marked, grammatical categories are abbreviated, and fused morphemes are represented, ensuring cross-linguistic consistency in glossed examples.
What is the difference between NOM/ACC and ERG/ABS case systems?
In nominative-accusative languages (like German, Turkish), the subject of both transitive and intransitive verbs takes nominative case (NOM), while the object of transitive verbs takes accusative case (ACC). In ergative-absolutive languages (like Basque, many Australian languages), the subject of transitive verbs takes ergative case (ERG), while both the object of transitive verbs and the subject of intransitive verbs take absolutive case (ABS). The Basque example gizon-ak (man-ERG) mutil-a (boy-ABS) ikusi du illustrates this pattern.
How do I represent fused morphemes like English third person singular "-s"?
When a single morpheme expresses multiple grammatical categories simultaneously (fusion), connect the category labels with periods: walk-s becomes walk-3SG.PRS. This follows Rule 4 (one-to-many correspondence) and Rule 5 (person-number fusion). The period indicates that 3rd person, singular number, and present tense are expressed in a single inseparable morpheme, as opposed to agglutinative languages where each category has a separate affix.
What is the difference between IPFV (imperfective) and PFV (perfective) aspect?
Imperfective (IPFV) views an event as ongoing, habitual, or not completed, focusing on the internal structure of the event. Perfective (PFV) views an event as a completed whole, without reference to its internal temporal structure. In Turkish: yaz-iyor-du (write-IPFV.PST, "was writing") versus yaz-di (write-PFV.PST, "wrote"). Perfect (PRF) is a separate category indicating a past event with current relevance: yaz-mis (write-PRF, "has written" with experiential meaning).
What do INCL and EXCL mean for first person plural?
INCL (inclusive) and EXCL (exclusive) distinguish whether the addressee (listener) is included in "we." In Tagalog: tayo (1PL.INCL) means "we including you," while kami (1PL.EXCL) means "we excluding you." This clusivity distinction is found in many Austronesian, Dravidian, and indigenous American languages but is absent in European languages, where "we" is ambiguous between inclusive and exclusive readings.
How are infixes represented in glossed text?
Infixes are marked with angle brackets < > following Rule 8. For example, in Tagalog the actor-focus infix -um- is inserted into the root sulat ("write"): s<um>ulat, glossed as <ACT.FOC>write. The angle brackets show exactly where the morpheme is inserted within the root, distinguishing infixes from prefixes (PREFIX-stem) and suffixes (stem-SUFFIX). This notation is especially important for Philippine and Austronesian language documentation.
What is the difference between TOP (topic) and FOC (focus) markers?
TOP (topic) marks what the sentence is about, the given information or theme. In Korean and Japanese, the topic marker (-neun/-wa) indicates the discourse topic: na-neun haksaeng-ida (1SG-TOP student.COP, "As for me, I am a student"). FOC (focus) marks new, contrastive, or emphasized information. Many languages have dedicated focus particles or constructions. The distinction between topic and focus is crucial for understanding information structure across languages.
What are evidential markers (EVID) and how are they glossed?
Evidential markers indicate the source of information for a statement. EVID (evidential) marks whether the speaker has direct evidence, heard it from someone else, or inferred it. In Turkish, the suffix -mis marks indirect evidentiality or hearsay: gel-mis (come-EVID, "reportedly came" or "apparently came"). QUOT (quotative) specifically marks reported speech: di-ye (say-QUOT, "saying that"). These categories are grammaticalized in many Turkic, Tibetan, and indigenous American languages.