Annotation of Relative Forms in the E gyptian- UJ aen Treebank (2025)

Abstract: Relative forms are adjective finite verb forms that can be used in an attributive or a nominal function. They pose a challenge when annotating them according to the Universal Dependencies approach, for they have morphological features of both verbs and adjectives, yet they can also be used syntactically as nouns. The aim of this paper is to discuss the morphosyntactic methodology applied to their annotation in the Egyptian-UJaen treebank.

## introduction the egyptian-ujaen treebank in universal dependencies (hereafter ud-euja treebank) contains 21,945 words and 2,192 sentences, 1 most of which are taken from the pyramid texts written in old egyptian (ca. 2700-2000 bc). @xcite since the beginning of this ud treebank in march 2024, the annotation of egyptian morphosyntactic features according to the universal dependencies approach has been a challenge, not only because of the idiosyncrasy of old egyptian, but also because of the lack of dependency grammar works by egyptian philologists. @xcite the present paper is the first of a series of studies on the annotation of egyptian @xcite the present paper is based on the latest version of the treebank published in ud release 2.16 (may 2025). @xcite the pyramid texts have been edited by sethe (1908-22) and by allen (2013). both works have been used for the annotation of the pyramid texts in the ud-euja treebank. @xcite for issues related to the inception and development of the ud-euja treebank see díaz hernández and passarotti 2024. @xcite relative forms disappeared in later stages of egyptian. in coptic they were replaced by morphosyntactic features in the ud-euja treebank. the aim of these studies is to discuss issues arising from the application of the ud approach (de marneffe, manning, nivre and zeman, 2021) on egyptian syntax. the old egyptian relative forms have been chosen as the subject of this paper because of their idiosyncratic nature. @xcite they have certainly been described as hybrid forms, half participle, half personal verb forms, which deviate more than any other verb form from the categories we know from the classical languages. @xcite a relative form differs from a verb form in two ways. firstly, the antecedent of a relative form is the dependent of a verb form, for example the antecedent of a relative form can be the object of a verb form. secondly, the relative form agrees in gender and number with its antecedent, cf.: 1) example of a verb form followed by its subject and object, pt 535a t (euja-1607): this paper deals with the following issues: ¾ general features of the relative forms and their annotation in the ud-euja treebank (2). ¾ morphological features of the relative forms: gender, number and the ꞽ prefix (also called "prothetic") (3). ¾ a semantic classification of four relative verb forms-a past/perfective relative form (or past-2 relative form), a present/imperfective relative form, a future/perfect relative form, and clère's past relative form (or past-1 relative form) (4). ¾ a syntactic analysis (5) consisting of two parts based on the dual function of the relative forms. these can be attributive relative forms, modifying an antecedent, or nominal relative forms that function syntactically as nouns. special focus will be laid on the change of the dependency relationship in the nominal relative forms. ¾ a conclusion (6). ## general features of the relative forms a relative form is an adjective finite verb form (polotsky, 1976, 4, 13 and schenkel, 2012, 279). it is adjective-like for it modifies and agrees with a noun, and it is verb-like for it is finite and has a subject. in earlier egyptian, which includes old egyptian and middle egyptian, relative forms contrast with participles, which are adjective nonfinite verb forms, i.e. they lack a personal inflection. @xcite the ud-euja treebank contains currently 190 relative forms. the following features are used to annotate relative forms in the ud-euja treebank: 1) upos column: verb. 2) feats column: ## morphological features in its current state the ud-euja treebank contains 88 masculine relative forms. 83 of which are singular and 5 are plural. the masculine singular relative forms usually lack an ending. however, a w ending referring to a masculine singular antecedent is occasionally added when the tense of the relative form is present (gardiner, 1957, 297/ § 380; see examples taken from the ud-euja treebank in if the antecedent is feminine, the ending of a relative form is t. there are 102 feminine singular relative forms in the ud-euja treebank. no feminine plural relative form has been annotated so far. the t ending is also used in relative forms with a neuter meaning (gardiner, 1957, 297/ § 380 and loprieno, 1995, 86; cf. ex. 16, below). the gender of relative forms with neuter meaning is annotated as feminine in the feats column, as their morphological gender remains feminine. an ꞽ prefix, also called "prothetic" (uljas, 2023 and stauder, 2014, 256), is occasionally added to the relative forms. the ꞽ prefix only appears with certainty in past-2 and present relative forms (see ## semantic function since relative forms are verb forms, they are characterised by verb features. however, there is no general agreement on the terminology and semantic function of relative forms. while some authors emphasise their aspect feature using the terms "perfective", "imperfective" and "perfect" (allen 2010: 354, borghouts 2010: 277-278), others consider them tenses and classify them as past, present and future relative forms (ockinga 2005: 67-69 and schenkel 2012: 280). despite this disagreement, most grammars concur that there are three relative forms: 10 a) a past/perfective relative form (or past-2 relative form) characterised by the ending n and annotated with the keys "@xmath1, e.g.: 4) pt 77a w (euja-1552): ꞽr.t ḥr.w ꞽtḥ.tn -f eye-f.sg horus-gn pull out:rel.past-2-f.@xmath2.m "(...) the eye of horus which he pulled out." b) a present/imperfective relative form characterised by the reduplication of the second radical in verbs with a third weak radical (3ae-inf), such as mri̯ "to love". they are annotated with the keys "@xmath3, e.g.: 5) pt 15 n (euja-83): the past/perfective and present/imperfective relative forms are known from erman's and sethe's works at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, see erman, 1894, 164-166 ( § § 394-399) and sethe, 1899, 327 ( § 754 foll.). the future/perfect relative form was discovered later by gunn (1924, 1-25). in addition, clère (1949) and schenkel (2010) argued for the existence of a fourth relative form with a past tense (past-1 relative form). it occasionally features a w ending in verbs with the third weak radical (3ae-inf), such as mśi̯ "to bear, to give birth" and in verbs with three strong radicals (3-lit), such as śnḳ "to suck". contrary to the present relative form, the second radical of verbs with the third weak radical is not reduplicated in the past-1 relative form, e.g.: this relative form is annotated with the keys "past-1" in the misc column and "@xmath4. according to schenkel, the past-1 relative form is an archaic feature that was gradually replaced by the past-2 relative form with an n ending (schenkel, 2010, 66). ## conclusion the annotation of old egyptian relative forms in the ud-euja treebank was challenging due to their morphological particularities and dual syntactic function. there are four types of relative forms according to their tense-past-1, past-2, @xcite for this example, see allen, 2017, 188 and 345. present and future relative forms. the dual syntactic function of relative forms has also been taken into account when annotating them in the ud-euja treebank. on the one hand, attributive relative forms are defined as "acl:relcl" because they form relative clauses that modify an antecedent. on the other hand, nominal relative forms are annotated as nominal clauses with different syntactic functions. the morphosyntactic analysis of the old egyptian relative forms has demonstrated the effectiveness and accuracy of the ud-euja treebank in finding all instances of a given grammatical feature or structure. it contributes to the analysis of morphological particularities, such as the occasional masculine ending w in the present relative form (see the development of the ud-euja treebank will enrich general linguistics, as egyptian is characterised by idiosyncratic features. a good example of this is the use of relative forms, which are rarely found in other languages, notably indo-european languages. future studies using the ud-euja treebank will focus on the dual function of adjective features in old egyptian, such as the participles that allow attributive and nominal functions as do relative forms.