toLowerCase: in TrainsetReader if Environment.getToLowerCase() is true then tolowercase is hard wired into the Symbol. The original capitalisation of the symbol is lost. Environment._to_lowercase is set to true in Main.java for grammar training. In Mains corresponding to AnnotationStripping and BackConversion no conversion yo lowercase is done. On the other hand, in CKYParser toLowerCase is ONLY done inside the method Symbol.equals and Symbol.hashcode . The original capitalisation is prserved in the Symbol for the sake of the ability to print it to the standard output.