Annotation Instructions Tutorial

The purpose of this work is to label whether a sentence is subjective or not.

Definitions

Subjective: A sentence is considered subjective when it is based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions. Otherwise, the sentence is considered objective.

Table 1 shows an example for each type. Sentence 1 is objective because the author describes a historical event without giving any opinion or personal comment. In contrast, in Sentence 2 the author explicitly conveys their personal emotions, making the sentence subjective.

Table 1: Examples of subjective and objective sentences.
#	Sentence	Label
1	India, who was the bridesmaid at the King’s wedding to Princess Diana in 1981, could not be seen in the footage, but filmed the video as she walked through the grounds of the royal residence.	OBJ
2	It is a sad truth that many of the villages in this region of Portugal are dying.	SUBJ

Specific Cases of Subjectivity

Case 1: A sentence is subjective if it explicitly reports the personal opinion of its author. Rhetorical questions are considered as an expression of an opinion as well; see Ex. (c). Additionally, speculations which draw conclusions are considered as opinions, see Ex. (d).

Examples:

(a) It has everything you could want in a holiday: beautiful sandy beaches and clear waters, ancient history and culture, delicious food (the Greek salads are simply on another level), island hopping, nightlife and more.
(b) After treading vineyard soils and seeing grapes ripening, that merlot becomes more than just a Wednesday night relaxant.
(c) Do they really think other nations sprouted up out of the ground?
(d) But Putin will hope to sow uncertainty in the eyes of policymakers' meetings in New York.

Case 2: A sentence is subjective if it contains sarcastic or ironic expressions attributable to its author.

Examples:

(e) It's no lie that the USA is one heck of a big country (said in a southern twang).
(f) With Land Rover bowdlerising images of the vehicle into little more than a perfume advertisement on TV[...].
(g) Especially if you're more excited at the prospect of sampling rare bot- tles from the cellar than snapping vineyard selfies.

Case 3: A sentence is subjective if it contains exhortations of personal auspices made by its author.

Examples:

(h) The West should arm Ukraine faster.

Case 4: A sentence is subjective if it contains discriminating or downgrading expressions.

Examples:

(i) And what is even more evident is the perverse role reversal that is taking place, in which he who sits in Rome has the task of formulating heterodox principles opposed to Catholic doctrine, and his accomplices 2 in the Dioceses have the role of scandalously applying them, in an infernal attempt to undermine the Moral law in order to obey the spirit of the world.
(j) How did we reach the stage where priests and bishops cowered like frightened puppies before a common flu, where their predecessors ministered fearlessly among the lepers, the cripples, and the victims of typhoid, cholera, smallpox, and Bubonic Plague?

Case 5: A sentence is subjective if it contains rhetorical figures, like hyperboles, explicitly made by its author to convey their opinion.

Examples:

(k) Barcelona where it all began, Messi was a king in Catalonia and he lived like one too.
(l) The churches, and the Catholic Church in particular (which is by far the largest), had the ability to put an end to the lockdown madness and the COVID-terror campaign, had they wished to do so.
(m) So it must be biochemistry that is really what is racist.

Specific Cases of Objectivity

If a sentence does not meet any subjectivity type listed in the previous section, it is considered objective. Here we include examples of objective sentences which may be wrongly interpreted as subjective.

Case 1: A sentence is objective when it reports on news or historical facts that are quoted by the author of the sentence.

Examples:

(a) President Putin has just reiterated his threat to use nuclear weapons and announced that Russian-controlled Ukrainian territory will become part of the Russian Federation.
(b) In the modern era electroconvulsive therapy, first used in 1938, became a treatment for some serious forms of depression in the post-war decades.

Case 2: A sentence is objective when it describes the personal feelings, emotions or moods of the writer, without conveying opinions on other matters.

Examples:

(c) I was definitely surprised at how emotional I felt watching the service.
(d) The second I saw him, I felt a jolt of connection.

Case 3: A sentence is objective if it expresses an opinion, claim, emotion or a point of view that is explicitly attributable to a third-party (e.g., a person mentioned in the text).

Examples:

(e) Frank Drake believed that the universe had to contain other intel- ligent beings.
(f) "You showed callous indifference to Dean's fate after he had been repeatedly stabbed" the judge said.

Note: The presence of quotation marks (" "), when used to quote a third person (be it at the beginning of the sentence, at the end, or both), represents an explicit third-party opinion, even if it is not clearly stated in the sentence.

Examples:

(g) "Crosbie is an extremely violent man who has no place in society, and we welcome the jury's verdict today."
(h) "My children have lost their hero and I have lost my chosen person - the person I chose to spend my life with.
(i) For these reasons and out of conviction, I consider myself bound in my conscience to say no."

Case 4: A sentence is objective if it contains a comment made by the author of the sentence that does not draw any conclusion. In particular, the author doesn't convey their personal interpretation or opinion, leaving the discussion on the topics of interest open.

Examples:

(j) It is not clear yet which of the couples from the E4 reality show remain together and who have now, because the series has not concluded.
(k) Do car manufacturers know how far their EVs will really go?
(l) Exact figures are hard to come by, but Ukraine may well have more troops available than Russia now.

Case 5: A sentence is objective if it contains factual conclusions made by the author of the sentence that do not convey any stance or personal opinion, or are justified up by a non-personal hypothesis.

Examples:

(m) In years gone by, travel to Japan was notoriously expensive, but the devaluing of the yen has made it more accessible.
(n) The bottom-up approaches which target the molecular, genetic and electrical fundamentals of the brain can assist top-down approaches to brain disorder such as talking therapies.
(o) Based on our experiences and road tests, a good rule of thumb is to expect to achieve somewhere between 75 and 80 per cent of a car's WLTP Combined range [. . . ]

Case 6: When referring to an individual, any kind of well-known nickname or title is considered objective.

Examples:

(p) Things have certainly progressed on the pitch for Spurs this season.
(q) The Duke of York 'plotted' with Diana to 'push Prince Charles aside'.

Case 7: Any kind of common expression or proverb is considered objective.

Examples:

(r) the adage 'sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me'.
(s) Home sweet home: George poses in one of the rooms at his sprawling Hampstead home during a photoshoot in 2002.