Complete List of Operators

AQL currently includes the following operators:

Operator Description Illustration Notes
. direct precedence For non-terminal nodes, precedence is determined by the right-most and left-most terminal children. In corpora with multiple segmentations the layer on which consecutivity holds may be specified with .layer
.* indirect precedence For specific sizes of precedence spans, .n,m can be used, e.g. .3,4 - between 3 and 4 token distance; the default maximum distance for .* is 50 tokens. As above, segmentation layers may be specified, e.g. .layer,3,4
^ directly near or Same as precedence, but in either order. In corpora with multiple segmentations the layer on which consecutivity holds may be specified with ^layer
^* indirectly near or Like indirect precedence in either order. The form ^n,m can be used, e.g. ^3,4 - between 3 and 4 token distance; the default maximum distance for ^* is 50 tokens. As above, segmentation layers may be specified, e.g. ^layer,3,4
> direct dominance A specific edge type may be specified, e.g. >secedge to find secondary edges. Edge labels are specified in brackets, e.g. >[func="OA"] for an edge with the function 'object, accusative'
>* indirect dominance For specific distance of dominance, >n,m can be used, e.g. >3,4 - dominates with 3 to 4 edges distance
_=_ identical coverage Applies when two annotations cover the exact same span of tokens
_i_ inclusion Applies when one annotation covers a span identical to or larger than another
_o_ overlap For overlap only on the left or right side, use _ol_ and _or_ respectively
_l_ left aligned Both elements span an area beginning with the same token
_r_ right aligned Both elements span an area ending with the same token
== value identity A = B The value of the annotation or token A is identical to that of B (this operator does not bind, i.e. the nodes must be connected by some other criteria too)
!= value difference A ≠ B The value of the annotation or token A is different from B (this operator does not bind, i.e. the nodes must be connected by some other criteria too)
->LABEL labeled pointing relation A labeled, directed relationship between two elements. Annotations can be specified with ->LABEL[annotation="VALUE"]
->LABEL * indirect pointing relation An indirect labeled relationship between two elements. The length of the chain may be specified with ->LABEL n,m for relation chains of length n to m
>@l left-most child
>@r right-most child
$ common parent node
$* common ancestor node
#x:arity=n arity Specifies the amount of directly dominated children that the searched node has
#x:tokenarity=n tokenarity Specifies the length of the span of tokens covered by the node
#x:root root Specifies that the node is not dominated by any other node within its namespace