Points in Time

This sub-textual structure represents when something is described as occurring. Such details may take the form of dates (either specified fully, such as 'January 1st 2019', or more generally, such as 'January 2019' or '2019'), and date-like events, with text describing when something occurred (such as 'since our founding').

To help facilitate analysis, the date information is standardized in the textual-structure, with different ways of writing the same information consistently represented to make comparisons. For example, dates such as '1/1/18', 'January 1st 2018', and even 'the first of January 2018' all standardize the same. Similarly, a broad spectrum of firm events are captured, with the permutations in the ways in which the same event can be written and consistently standardized. For example, both the phrases 'since our founding' and 'since we were founded' are both captured within the 'FIRM_EVENT/FOUNDING' event type.

Specification

As detailed in the table and examples below, seven properties (YEAR, MONTH, DAY, QUARTER, SEASON, MODIFIERS, and EVENT) provide the flexibility to capture the range of ways in which a point in time can be described.

• YEAR, MONTH and DAY represent the sperate components of the date
• QUARTER and SEASON capture broader periods within the year
• MODIFIERS captures details that adjust the data, such as 'early' (with closely related phrases such as 'the beginning of' standardized the same).
• EVENT represents descriptions of a specific event that define the point in time

Naturally, the descriptions for not all point in time are going to include all properties, and properties are only included to the extent that they are pertinent. For example, in representing the phrase 'February 2019', only the YEAR and MONTH property are relevant (with other properties omitted), while representing the phrase 'since our founding in early 2017', the founding event is captured in the property EVENT, the year in YEAR, and the modifier 'early' in the MODIFIERS property.

Property	Type	Example	Details
YEAR	Integer	2010	Year represented as a 4-digit number (e.g., 2018).
MONTH	Integer	2	Month represented as a number between 1 and 12, with 'January' represented as 1 and 'December' as 12.
DAY	Integer	23	Day value between 1 to 31.
QUARTER	Standardized String	"1" or "1/2"	Takes values between 1 and 4, if multiple quarters are specified (e.g., 'First and Second quarter"), then they are both included, separated by a slash.
SEASON	Standardized String	"FALL"	Take the value 'SPRING', 'SUMMER', 'FALL' and 'WINTER'. ('Autumn' is represented as 'Fall')
MODIFIERS	List: Standardized String	["EARLY"]	Captures details that can modify the date. Common examples include APPROXIMATELY', 'EARLY', 'MID', 'LATE', 'FISCAL YEAR'. Full details can be found here.
EVENT	Standardized String	See below for further details.	Details of the event.

Examples

{  
   "ORIGINAL":"1984",
   "YEAR":1984,
}

{  
   "ORIGINAL":"around September 2006",
   "YEAR":2006,
   "MONTH":9,  
   "MODIFIERS":["AROUND"],     
}

{  
   "ORIGINAL":"10/01/2006",
   "YEAR":2006,
   "MONTH":10,  
   "DAY":1,    
}

{  
   "ORIGINAL":"his retirement in 2005",
   "YEAR":2005,
   "EVENT":"RETIREMENT",  
}

{  
   "ORIGINAL":"our founding in 2010",
   "YEAR":2005,
   "EVENT":"COMPANY_FOUNDING",  
}

Date-Like Events

Below illustrates examples of date-like-events. Consistent with the above examples, if a date is also included as well as the date-like-event, then both are extracted and represented in the textual-structure.

Value	Common Examples
COMPANY_FOUNDING	[since] our founding
MERGER/ACQUISITIONS	[until] we acquired them in 1996 [until] 1996 when the company was acquired by Gorilla Software
DEPARTURE	[since] his retirement [until] he left the company in 2010 [following] his resignation
JOINING_FIRM	[since] she joined the firm in 2010
IPO	[Following] our IPO in 1996
RETIREMENT	[until] he retired in 2010