Annotation guidelines

Table of contents

Introduction
General instructions
Entities
Entity Linking
Examples
References

Status. This is a draft version.

Introduction

These guidelines are aimed to support manual annotation of the Reichsanzeiger newspapers for NER & NEL tasks.

Application context. Our ultimate goal is to recognize and link the named entities from the historical newspaper Reichsanzeiger. It’s roughly 500 thousands pages for years 1819-1945.

The main language of the newspapers is German. The tiny parts are written in French, English, Spanish, Latin and Portuguese.

Methodology. These guidelines are created iteratively via:

Adapting the existing annotation guidelines [1-4] on historical German texts for NER/NEL tasks (mainly [1] based on the annotation guidelines for French texts [5]),
Analysing the sample pages from the Reichsanzeiger.

General instructions

Manual annotators shall use only subtypes and components. The only exception is the type EVENT: the events should be annotated as EVENT.

Entity types and subtypes

The types and their subtypes categorize a named entity. This is the first level of annotation referring to a general segmentation of words into major categories [6]. The taxonomy follows mainly [1] and [5], which are consistent except of the EVENT type (see the Source-column).

Type	Subtypes	The entity refers to	Source
PER	PER.ind	an individual (a proper name should be a part of the entity)	p.21 [5]; p.9 [1]
	PER.coll	more than one individual (a proper name should be a part of the entity)	p.21 [5]; p.9 [1]
ORG	ORG.adm	an organisation which plays a mainly administrative role	p.31 [5]; p.15 [1]
	ORG.ent	an organisation which doesn’t play a mainly administrative role	p.29 [5]; p.14 [1]
LOC	LOC.adm	a territory with a geopolitical border (e.g., cities, city districts, countries & continents)	p.32 [5]; p.15 [1]
	LOC.phys	a physical location (e.g., mountains, rivers & planets)	p.34 [5]; p.17 [1]
	LOC.oro	an oronym (e.g., are streets, squares, roads & highways)	p.35 [5]; p.18 [1]
	LOC.fac	named buildings (train station & museum), named constructions (gates & bridges) & their extensions (stadium & campus); a physical location of an organisation	p.36 [5]; p.19 [1]
	LOC.add	physical & electronic addresses	p.37 [5]; p.20 [1]
PROD	PROD.media	media production (e.g., newspapers, magazines & sales catalogues)	p.41 [5]; p.22 [1]
TIME	TIME.date.abs	an absolute date (specific date, not a relative date; the dates containing only a day and a month, a month and a year, only a year or only a century)	p.57 [5]; p.23 [1]
	TIME.range	a time interval between two absolute dates	-
EVENT	EVENT	an event	p.63 [5]

Components

Components categorize the elements inside a named entity. This is the second level of annotation helping to determine the named entity type and to set the named entity boundaries [6]. The components can never be used outside the scope of a type or subtype element [6]. A named entity can consist of one or more components as well as the parts without components. The components of the type PERSON are:

Component	Description
COMP.name	first, middle and last names as well as nickname and initials of a person
COMP.title	title or designator of a person
COMP.func	a function or job of a named person
COMP.qualifier	specifies a person in the form of a qualifying adjective
COMP.demonym	the geographical origin of a person

Annotators shall annotate components only for named entities of type person.

Nested entities and special constructions

Nested entities. A nested entity is an entity nested in another entity or in entity component. There are no limits on nesting levels during annotation.

Components of nested entities. In contrast to [1], components of nested entities are also annotated.

Ambiguities

Unsolvable entity type ambiguities.

TO DO: do we want to take this into account?

Metonymy.

TO DO: do we want to take this into account?

Entities

Person (PER)

Subtypes

PER.ind: the entity refers to an individual.
PER.coll: the entity refers to more than one individual. A proper name should be a part of the entity.

Coverage of the type Person

Considered as Person:
- real person (e.g., Karl August von Hardenberg)
- imaginary characters and characters of literature pieces (e.g., Marthe Schwerdtlein)
- religious figures (God)
- titles if they can be distinctively attributed to one person for ex. via date (e.g., Se. Koͤnigl. Hoheit der Herzog von Cumberland)
- firm names that are the name of a person as well
Not considered as Person: (TO DO: decide on this keeping in mind the entity linking task)
- expressions without a proper name except expressions containing title and demonym or expressions that can be clearly attributed to one person via time (e.g., Großherzog von Baden, Kaiser der Franzosen)
- demonyms which do not modify a proper name
- isolated functions not attached to a person name
- abbreviation of names that are only one letter (e.g., A.)
Considered as Person.Collective:
- more than one individual containing a proper name (e.g., )
- royal courts (e.g., Kaiserlicher Russischer Hofstaat)
- firms with several partners (e.g.,
Not considered as Person.Collective:
- citizens or residents of certain geographic areas (e.g., Herren H.F. Fetschow & Sohn)
- Löwenberger, Plagwitzer, die letzten Franzoſen)
- families if it is not clear which family members are included

Person Components

COMP.func (a function or job of a named person):
- an occupation, profession or specialty (e.g., Zimmermann, Richter)
- an administrative function in public or private area (e.g., Vorsitzender, Außenminister)
- social roles and status (e.g., Häftling)
- a function always includes the organization, place or specialization attached to it [1]
COMP.title (title or designator of a person):
- a civil or honorific prefix (e.g., Frau, Herr, Damen, Herren, Dlle. (demoiselle) Dr., Majestät, königliche Hoheit), military titles (e.g., General, Leutnant), nobility titles and royal titles (Fürstin, Gräfin, Herzog, Ritter, Junker)
- specifications of doctorates (e.g., Dr. jur., Dr. rer. nat.)
- titles that are both civil and military titles (e.g., Kapitän)
COMP.qualifier (specifies a person in the form of a qualifying adjective):
- any adjective qualifying the entity (e.g., sozialistische, senior, III.)
COMP.name (first, middle and last names as well as nickname and initials of a person):
- covers first-, middle-, last- and nickname (e.g., Karl)
- names of noble families if the name is not related to a location (e.g., von Humboldt)
COMP.demonym (the geographical origin of a person):
- a noun or adjective that identifies residents of a particular place (e.g., Bayerische)
- names of noble families if the name is related to a location (e.g., von Solms-Lych)

Tricky cases for Person

Prinzen Karl, Louis, und Ferdinand zu Solms⸗Lych

<PER.coll>
          <COMP.title>Prinzen</COMP.title>
          <PER.ind> Karl</PER.ind>, 
          <PER.ind> Louis</PER.ind>
          ,und 
          <PER.ind> Ferdinand</PER.ind>
          <COMP.demonym> zu Solms⸗Lych</COMP.demonym>
</PER.coll>

<PER.coll>
      <COMP.title> Herren </COMP.title>
      <ORG.ent>
        <PER.ind>H.F. Fetschow </PER.ind>& Sohn
      </ORG.ent>
</PER.coll>

The expressions containing title and demonym are annotated:

Großherzog von Baden

<PER.ind>
    <COMP.title>Großherzog></COMP.title> 
    <COMP.demonym>von Baden</COMP.demonym>
</PER.ind>

Se. Köngl. Hoheit der Herzog von Cumberland

<PER.ind>
    <COMP.title>Se. Köngl. Hoheit</COMP.title>
    der
    <COMP.title>Herzog</COMP.title>
    <COMP.demonym>von Cumberland</COMP.demonym>
</PER.ind>

Königl. Preußische Lieutentant im Garde-Uhlanen-Regimente, Graf Ratibor von Werßowitz zu Potsdam

<PER.ind>
    <COMP.title>Königl. Preußische Lieutentant im
        <ORG.ent>Garde-Uhlanen-Regimente </ORG.ent>
    </COMP.title>
    ,
    <COMP.title>Graf</COMP.title>
    <COMP.name>Ratibor</COMP.name>
    <COMP.demonym>von Werßowitz</COMP.demonym>
   <COMP.demonym>zu Potsdam</COMP.demonym>
</PER.ind>

ehemalige Gouverneur von Catalonien, Graf Espagne

<PER.ind>
    <COMP.qualifier>ehemalige</COMP.qulifier>
    <COMP.func>Gouverneur</COMP.func>
    <COMP.demonym>von Catalonien</COMP.demonym>
    ,
    <COMP.title>Graf</COMP.title>
    <COMP.name>Espagne</COMP.name>
</PER.ind>

Organization (ORG)

Subtypes

ORG.adm: an organisation which plays a mainly administrative role.
ORG.ent: an organisation which doesn’t play a mainly administrative role

Coverage of the type Organization

Considered as Organization:
- registered organizations
- museums, institutes, universities, libraries (annotate as ORG.ent)
- restaraunts (annotate as ORG.ent)
- military units (annotate as ORG.ent)
- political parties (annotate as ORG.ent)
- firms (annotate as ORG.ent)
- parliaments (annotate as ORG.adm, e.g., Reichstag, Unterhaus)
- courts of justice (annotate as ORG.adm)
Not considered as Organization:
- theaters (annotate it as LOC.fac)

Tricky cases for Organization

ORG or PER.coll

Blücherſchen Heere

<ORG.ent>
    <PER.ind>Blücherſchen></PER.ind> 
    Heere
</ORG.ent>

<PER.coll>
      <COMP.title> Herren </COMP.title>
      <ORG.ent>
        <PER.ind>H.F. Fetschow </PER.ind>& Sohn
      </ORG.ent>
</PER.coll>

Location (LOC)

Subtypes

LOC.adm: a territory with a geopolitical border (e.g., cities, countries & continents)
LOC.fac: named buildings (train station & museum) & their extensions (stadium & campus); a physical location of an organisation
LOC.oro: an oronym (e.g., are streets, squares, roads & highways)
LOC.phys: a physical location (e.g., mountains, rivers & planets)

Coverage of the type Location

Considered as Location:
Not considered as LOC.add:
- street names without a house number
Not considered as LOC.adm:
- regions without clear borders (e.g., Ostafrika, Ostindien)
- if a location is written as an adjective (e.g., Spanisch)
- colonies that can not be attributed to a specific geographical location (e.g., Spaniſchen Kolonieen)
considered LOC.fac:
- specific buildings (e.g., Schloss Mannheim)
- unspecific buildings (e.g., Haus)

Tricky cases for Location

Specifications (for ex. island, colony etc.) of locations are annotated as well

Kolonie Bourbon

<LOC.adm>Kolonie Bourbon</LOC.adm>

Königsberg

<LOC.adm>Königsberg</LOC.adm>

Königsberg in Pr.

<LOC.adm>Königsberg in Pr.</LOC.adm>

Entity linking

entities are linked against Wikidata
nested entities are linked unless the main entity is PER.ind
All types of entities except for components and TIME.range are linked
LOC.adm: only linked to address if a Wikipedia article with the exact name of the address exists (in our dataset no such Wikipedia articles existed)
If the historical referent differs from the current referent (e.g., Reichsgaue Sudetenland) the historical Wikidata entry is linked. If there is no historical referent, the current Wikidata entry is linked.
different iterations of the same organisation (e.g., the Reichstag) are not linked to the specific iteration (e.g., 10. Reichstag) but the general wikidata entry (Reichstag - Wikidata)
abbreviations are linked as well if they can be clearly attributed (e.g., SS)
in case of a metonymy of PER.coll, PER.ind and ORG.ent (e.g., Firma Gebrüder F. J. Badart -> both ORG.ent and PER.coll) the entities are not linked because distinction is too difficult

Examples

PERSON

Sr. hochfürſtlichen Durchl. des Prinzen Friedrich, Sohnes Sr. Hoheit des Kurprinzen.

<PER.ind> 
    <COMP.title>Sr. hochfürſtlichen Durchl.</COMP.title> 
    des
    <COMP.title>Prinzen</COMP.title> 
    <COMP.name>Friedrich</COMP.name>,
    <COMP.func>Sohnes
         <PER.ind> 
              <COMP.title>Sr. Hoheit</COMP.title>
              des
              <COMP.title>Kurprinzen </COMP.title>
          </PER.ind>
   </COMP.func> 
</PER.ind>

Kaiſerlich Oeſterreichſche Kabinets⸗Kourier Vardioro.

<PER.ind>
    <COMP.title>Kaiſerlich></COMP.title> 
    <COMP.demonym>Oeſterreichſche</COMP.demonym>
    <COMP.func>Kabinets⸗Kourier</COMP.func>
    <COMP.name>Vardioro</COMP.name>
</PER.ind>

Prinzeßinen Töchtern, Amalie und Maria.

<PER.coll>
    <COMP.title>Prinzeßinen</COMP.title>
    Töchtern,
    <COMP.name>Amalie</COMP.name>
    und
    <COMP.name>Maria</COMP.name>
</PER.coll>

Kommandeurs des Ordens des Heiligen Geiſtes den Kardinal de la Luzerne, den Kardinal de Bausset, den Erzbiſchof von Bordeaux und den Abbe Montesquiou.

<PER.coll>
    <COMP.func>Kommandeurs des
        <ORG.ent>Ordens des Heiligen Geiſtes</ORG.ent>
    </COMP.func>
    den
    <PER.ind>
        <COMP.func>Kardinal</COMP.func>
        de la
        <COMP.demonym>Luzerne</COMP.demonym>
    </PER.ind>,
    den 
    <PER.ind>
        <COMP.func>Kardinal</COMP.func>
        <COMP.name>de Bausset</COMP.name>
    </PER.ind>,
    <PER.ind>
        den
        <COMP.func>Erzbiſchof</COMP.func>
        <COMP.demonym>von Bordeaux</COMP.demonym>
    </PER.ind>
    und
    <PER.ind>
        den
        <COMP.func>Abbe</COMP.func>
        Montesquiou
    </PER.ind>
</PER.coll>

Herzog und die Herzogin von Angouleme

<PER.coll>
        <COMP.title>Herzog</COMP.title>
    und die 
        <COMP.title>Herzogin</COMP.title>
    <COMP.name>von Angouleme</COMP.name>
</PER.coll>

Frau von Lepel, geb. v. d. Lanken

<PER.ind> Frau von 
     <COMP.name> Lepel </COMP.name>
     , geb. v. d. 
     <COMP.name> Lanken </COMP.name> 
 </PER.ind>

Staats⸗Sekretair und Chef⸗Praͤſident der Haupt⸗Bank Frieſe

<PER.ind>
         <COMP.func>Staats⸗Sekretair</COMP.func>
         und
         <COMP.func> Chef⸗Praͤſident der 
                <ORG.adm>Haupt⸗Bank</ORG.adm>
         </COMP.func> 
         <COMP.name> Frieſe</COMP.name>
</PER.ind>

Nested entities with components are also annotated: Se. Exc. der General⸗Lieutenant, diesſeitiger außerordentlicher Geſandter und bevollmaͤchtigter Miniſter am Rußiſch Kaiſerlichen Hofe Freiherr von Schoͤler.

<PER.ind>
    <COMP.title>Se. Exc. der General⸗Lieutenant</COMP.title>,
    <COMP.func>diesſeitiger außerordentlicher Geſandter</COMP.func>
    und
    <COMP.func>bevollmaͤchtigter Miniſter am
       <PER.coll>Rußiſch Kaiſerlichen Hofe</PER.coll>
    </COMP.func>
    <COMP.title>Freiherr</COMP.title>
    <COMP.name>von Schoͤler</COMP.name>
</PER.ind>

Britiſche General⸗Konſul in Tripolis, Herr Warrington

<PER.ind>
     <COMP.func>
     <COMP.demonym>Britiſche</COMP.demonym>
      General⸗Konſul in
     <LOC.adm>Tripolis</LOC.adm>
     </COMP.func>
     ,Herr
     <COMP.name>Warrington</COMP.name>
</PER.ind>

tricky cases for person

Page 13 in [1].

How to treat the following cases?

surnames with “von” and a city
surnames with “Abbe” and a city
etc

How do we choose between these cases?

a person contains COMP.func with LOC.adm inside ```xml

Abbe Montesquiou

* a person contains COMP.func with COMP.demonym inside
```xml
<PER.ind>
    <COMP.func>Abbe
        <COMP.demonym>Montesquiou</COMP.demonym>
    </COMP.func>
</PER.ind>

a person contains COMP.func only ```xml

Abbe Montesquiou

* a person contains COMP.func and COMP.demonym
```xml
<PER.ind>
    <COMP.func>Abbe</COMP.func>
    <COMP.demonym>Montesquiou</COMP.demonym>
</PER.ind>

a person contains COMP.func and LOC.adm ```xml

Abbe Montesquiou

Similar cases:

```xml
<PER.ind>
    <COMP.func>Kardinal</COMP.func>
    de
    <COMP.demonym> la Luzerne</COMP.demonym>
</PER.ind>

<PER.ind>
    den
    <COMP.func>Erzbiſchof </COMP.func>
    <COMP.demonym>von Bordeaux</COMP.demonym>
</PER.ind>

How to choose between COMP.demonym and LOC.adm?

EVENT

Schlacht an der Katzbach: specific (specific in space and time)

Geburt des jungen Prinzen: not specific

DATE

Michaelis d. J. -> 29. September

Ein u. Zwanzigſten März 1836 -> annotated

21ster d. Mts -> not specific -> not annotated

Ende Dezember 1831: not specific -> not annotated Dezember 1831: specific -> annotated

Tricky cases for DATE

Juli 1837 bis Ende Dezember 1838

<TIME.range>
    <TIME.date>1. Juli 1837</TIME.date>
    bis
    <TIME.date>Ende Dezember 1838</TIME.date>
</TIME.range>

<TIME.date>Siebter November </TIME.date>

LOCATION

Streets with house numbers, annotated as LOC.add, will no be linked to streets or buildings at Wikidata.

Ireland, when alone: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q22890

Great Britain and Ireland, together (1801- 1927): https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q174193

Great Britain, when alone: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q23666

Berl n / Leipz g to Berlin / Leipzig

Berlin Breitestaße No 20

<loc.adm> Berlin </loc.adm>
<loc.add> Breitestaße No 20 </loc.add> 

In case of locations that can’t be clealy attributed to a city or another location because they are both a city and a location with the same name exist (for example: Samos -> is both city and island) no QID is assigned

Gardens: LOC.phys (e.g. Jardin des Tuileries)

Islands: LOC.adm

Theaters: LOC.fac

ancient cities: LOC.adm (e.g. Pompeii)

military buildings are annotated as LOC.fac

Garnison Mühlberg

<LOC.fac> Garnison Mühlberg</LOC.fac>

ORGANISATION

Pariser Bijoutier Odiot

<ORG.ent>
     Pariser
     Bijoutier
     <PER.ind>Odiot</PER.ind>
 </ORG.ent> 

PER.ind not annotated

governments of a country are annotated as ORG.adm

Niederländische Regierung

<ORG.adm>niederländische Regierung</ORG.adm>

Museums: ORG.ent

Königliche Regierungs-Hauptkasse, Königlichen Staatsschulden-Tilgungskasse etc.: ORG.adm

hospitals: ORG.ent

Do we annotate royal courts as PER.coll or ORG.adm?

Russischer Hof

<PER.coll>Russisch Kaiserlicher Hof </PER.coll>

Russischer Hof

<ORG.adm>Russisch Kaiserlicher Hof </ORG.adm>

PROD.media

names Preußischer Staatsanzeiger: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q55257346

Ther are multiple names for the Reichanzeiger newspapaer (https://digi.bib.uni-mannheim.de/periodika/reichsanzeiger/).

References

[1] Ehrmann, Watter, Romanello, & Clematide. (2019). Impresso Named Entity Annotation Guidelines (2.1). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3585750

[2] Romanello, Matteo, & Najem-Meyer, Sven. (2022). Guidelines for the Annotation of Named Entities in the Domain of Classics (18.03.2022). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6368101

[3] Ahmed Hamdi, Elvys Linhares Pontes, & Antoine Doucet. (2021). Annotation Guidelines for Named Entity Recognition, Entity Linking and Stance Detection (v3.1). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4574199

[4] Menzel, Sina, Zinck, Josefine, & Petras, Vivien. (2020). Guidelines for Full Text Annotations in the SoNAR (IDH) Corpus (2.4). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5116015

[5] Sophie Rosset, Cyril Grouin & Pierre Zweigenbaum. (2011). Entités nommées structurées: guide d’annotation Quaero. [pdf]

[6] Cyril Grouin, Sophie Rosset, Pierre Zweigenbaum, Karën Fort, Olivier Galibert, and Ludovic Quintard. (2011). Proposal for an Extension of Traditional Named Entities: From Guidelines to Evaluation, an Overview. In Proceedings of the 5th Linguistic Annotation Workshop, pages 92–100, Portland, Oregon, USA. Association for Computational Linguistics. [pdf]