Proper Names vs. Common Nouns

Problem:

The distinction between proper names (NE) and common nouns (NN) is sometimes only possible with semantic knowledge as there is no orthographical difference in German (lower/upper case). An additional problem is the disambiguation of proper nous and foreign language material.

Tagging practice IMS/TUE and STTS:

Distinction is made on semantic grounds (systematicalized by a list of items to be regarded as proper nouns, e.g. names of geographic places, persons...). Complex proper nouns are tagged with tags that individual parts get in a non-naming context. Foreign word forms are (manually) identified by world-knowledge

Examples for use of tags NE and NN (and FM):

• Ich trinke eine Cola/NN und arbeite bald bei Coca-Cola/NE in Atlanta/NE.
• ich wohne im Hotel ``Domizil/NE''.
• ich gehe ins ``Holiday/NE Inn/NE''.
• Deutsche/ADJA Angestellten-Gewerkschaft/NN
• der VFB/NE
• der VFB-Vorstand/NN
• die Grünen/NN
• Weil/NE am/APPRART Rhein/NE
• Tai/FM Chi/FM
• der Film ``La/FM mujer/FM de/FM Benjamin/NE''

Tests:

Type Ia, Ib

1. NE and NN are put into one class with tag N.
2. NE, NN and FM are put into one class with tag N.
3. Lexically ambiguous word forms between proper and common nouns (that is those that have both tags in the lexicon) are tagged as N, the rest of NE and NN stay as they are.