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# Identifying and Handling Cross-Treebank Inconsistencies in UD: A Pilot Study

**Authors:** [Tillmann Dönicke](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/authors/tillmann-donicke/), [Xiang Yu](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/authors/xiang-yu/), [Jonas Kuhn](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/authors/jonas-kuhn/) · **Year:** 2020 · **Venue:** Proceedings of the Fourth Workshop on Universal Dependencies (UDW 2020) **Link:** [aclanthology.org/2020.udw-1.8](https://aclanthology.org/2020.udw-1.8/) (ACL Anthology 2020.udw-1.8) **License of the paper:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — [creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

[**0** citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=cites:W3118329096) openalex · 2026-10-19[**1** citations in our library](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/cited-by/donicke-2020-identifying-handling-cross-treebank-inconsistencies/) of the 140673 papers whose bibliographies we read[Proceedings of the Fourth Workshop on Universal Dependencies (UDW 2020)](https://aclanthology.org/volumes/2020.udw-1/)[licence](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

- [Publisher's page](https://aclanthology.org/2020.udw-1.8/)
- [PDF](https://aclanthology.org/2020.udw-1.8.pdf)
- [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W3118329096)

**Authors (3)**

1. [Tillmann Dönicke](https://openalex.org/A5070034057) [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5844-9167) · [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/2067205022) · h 3 · 38 citations · 74 works
2. Xiang Yu [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9431-5131) · [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/2003808127)
3. [Jonas Kuhn](https://openalex.org/A5101531241) [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2860-5960) · [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/1716963) · h 22 · 1569 citations · 192 works

Citations and author metrics from openalex (2026-10-19); authors with the same name are not always told apart.

## Summary

Treebanks of the same language in Universal Dependencies share one label set, but individual relations are often annotated differently from treebank to treebank, which hurts merging corpora and transferring parsers. The authors propose a simple, language-independent signal: for each relation in each treebank, compute the share of dependents that appear to the right of their head, then take the largest gap in that share between treebanks of the same language (called MBD). On UD 2.5 they manually inspect the 20 language-relation pairs with the highest MBD and separate genuine inconsistencies from false alarms. Two clear cases, Chinese classifiers and Korean auxiliaries, are then fixed in the training treebanks with simple conversion rules that follow the UD guidelines. A UDPipe model retrained on the harmonised data gains roughly 1 to 3.4 LAS points on guideline-conforming test treebanks. The broader point is that even crude arc-direction statistics expose hidden annotation drift, and fixing it measurably improves cross-treebank parsing.

## How Mova uses it

- [How to find annotation errors automatically](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/en/seeds/errors/consistency-detection-methods/): the arc-direction (MBD) method is listed as one of five ways to find annotation errors automatically. Mova adopted its logic as a family of direction rules: `flat` and `conj` go rightward, `compound` and `nummod` leftward, `cc` precedes its conjunct.
- [A clausal subject — csubj, not nsubj](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/en/seeds/errors/clausal-subject-csubj/): cited for English `csubj` being among the most inconsistent relations across treebanks. This supports the warning rule `en.errors.verb-subject-csubj` (an `nsubj` on a VERB should be `csubj`).
- [flat — head on the left, compound — head on the right](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/en/seeds/errors/flat-compound-direction/) and [A noun modifier before the head noun: compound](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/en/seeds/nominal/compound/): cited for English `compound` (rightward in ParTUT because of `compound:prt` and names annotated as compounds). This backs the rule `en.nominal.compound-head-final` (a compound dependent precedes its nominal head).
- [Convention differences between the English UD treebanks](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/en/seeds/errors/english-treebank-conventions/): background for treating a higher violation count on GUM than on EWT as a treebank convention, not a rule error.

## Effectiveness in Mova

Not measured separately. Its idea is the basis of several rules in the rule engine. The seeds report how those rules behave on gold data, as written: on EWT 2.18, `flat` to the right in 2501 of 2501 cases; `compound` between nouns to the left 8416 times with 16 violations (GUM 6713/36); `compound` to the right 23 times out of 8690, mostly errors in the gold annotation itself; `nsubj` on VERB 4 on EWT and 8 on GUM. These numbers validate the rules. They do not measure what the paper adds over other sources.

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👨‍🔬💥

Topics: [Universal Dependencies](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/topics/universal-dependencies/) · [Treebanks](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/topics/treebanks/)

## Cite

The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work.

```
@inproceedings{donicke2020identifying,
  title = {{Identifying and Handling Cross-Treebank Inconsistencies in UD: A Pilot Study}},
  author = {Dönicke, Tillmann and Yu, Xiang and Kuhn, Jonas},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the Fourth Workshop on Universal Dependencies (UDW 2020)},
  year = {2020},
  url = {https://aclanthology.org/2020.udw-1.8/}
}
```

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## References

10 references, 3 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet.

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5. Marie-Catherine de Marneffe, Matias Grioni, Jenna Kanerva, and Filip Ginter. 2017. Assessing the annotation consistency of the Universal Dependencies corpora. In Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Dependency Linguistics (Depling 2017), pages 108–115, Pisa,Italy, September. Linköping University Electronic Press. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Marie%2DCatherine+de+Marneffe%2C+Matias+Grioni%2C+Jenna+Kanerva%2C+and+Filip+Ginter%2E+2017%2E+Assessing+the+annotation+consistency+of+the+Universal+Dependencies+corpora%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+Fourth+Internationa) [our card](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/marneffe-2017-assessing-annotation-consistency-universal-dependencies/)
6. Tillmann Dönicke, Xiang Yu, and Jonas Kuhn. 2020. Real-valued logics for typological universals: Framework and application. In Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Computational Linguistics. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Tillmann+D%C3%B6nicke%2C+Xiang+Yu%2C+and+Jonas+Kuhn%2E+2020%2E+Real%2Dvalued+logics+for+typological+universals%3A+Framework+and+application%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+28th+International+Conference+on+Computational+Linguis)
7. Tillmann Dönicke. 2020. Evaluation of complex typological universals with language vectors and real-valued logics. Master’s thesis, University of Stuttgart. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Tillmann+D%C3%B6nicke%2E+2020%2E+Evaluation+of+complex+typological+universals+with+language+vectors+and+real%2Dvalued+logics%2E+Master%E2%80%99s+thesis%2C+University+of+Stuttgart%2E)
8. Kira Droganova, Olga Lyashevskaya, and Daniel Zeman. 2018. Data conversion and consistency of monolingual corpora: Russian UD treebanks. In Proceedings of the 17th international workshop on treebanks and linguistic theories (TLT 2018), pages 52–65. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Kira+Droganova%2C+Olga+Lyashevskaya%2C+and+Daniel+Zeman%2E+2018%2E+Data+conversion+and+consistency+of+monolingual+corpora%3A+Russian+UD+treebanks%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+17th+international+workshop+on+treebanks+)
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