stanfordnlp/CoreNLP · error · SsurgeonParseException

RelabelNamedEdge created with no relation!

Error message

RelabelNamedEdge created with no relation!

What it means

SsurgeonParseException from RelabelNamedEdge's constructor when it is created with a null edge name or null relation; a relabel operation must know which named matched edge to modify and what relation to assign.

Solutions

1. Pass a valid GrammaticalRelation instance, e.g. UniversalGrammaticalRelations.DIRECT_OBJECT or GrammaticalRelation.valueOf("dobj")
2. Fix the -reln argument in the resource line to a valid universal relation short name
3. Use the relations from edu.stanford.nlp.trees.UniversalGrammaticalRelations rather than null placeholders

Example fix

// before
new RelabelNamedEdge("myEdge", null);
// after
new RelabelNamedEdge("myEdge", UniversalGrammaticalRelations.NOMINAL_SUBJECT);

if (relation == null) {
  throw new IllegalArgumentException("relabel-named-edge requires a -reln GrammaticalRelation");
}

boolean isValidRelation(GrammaticalRelation r) { return r != null && r.getShortName() != null; }

try {
  op = new RelabelNamedEdge(edgeName, relation);
} catch (SsurgeonParseException e) {
  log.error("Missing/invalid relation: {}", e.getMessage());
  op = new RelabelNamedEdge(edgeName, UniversalGrammaticalRelations.DEPENDENT);
}

When it happens

Trigger: new RelabelNamedEdge(edgeName, null), or a relabel-named-edge Ssurgeon resource line with a missing or unparseable -reln argument.

Common situations: Typo in the relation name in a rule file so the parser yields null; constructing the operation from a config where the relation field is absent; using a relation string that cannot resolve to a GrammaticalRelation.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• No governor given for an AddDep
• No relation given for an AddDep
• ReattachNamedEdge created with no edge name!
• ReattachNamedEdge created with both gov and dep missing!
• RelabelNamedEdge created with no edge name!

AI-assisted analysis of stanfordnlp/CoreNLP@1b7edd19c4 (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4882ad8a64228aae. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/edu/stanford/nlp/semgraph/semgrex/ssurgeon/RelabelNamedEdge.java:34

 * <i>that</i> edge is deleted permanently.  That way, named
 * references to the first edge should still work.
 *
 * @author John Bauer
 *
 */
public class RelabelNamedEdge extends SsurgeonEdit {  
  public static final String LABEL = "relabelNamedEdge";

  protected final String edgeName; // Name of the matched edge in the SemgrexPattern

  protected final GrammaticalRelation relation; // Type of relation to add between these edges

  public RelabelNamedEdge(String edgeName, GrammaticalRelation relation) {
    if (edgeName == null) {
      throw new SsurgeonParseException("RelabelNamedEdge created with no edge name!");
    }
    if (relation == null) {
      throw new SsurgeonParseException("RelabelNamedEdge created with no relation!");
    }

    this.edgeName = edgeName;
    this.relation = relation;
  }

  @Override
  public String toEditString() {
    StringWriter buf = new StringWriter();
    buf.write(LABEL); buf.write("\t");

    buf.write(Ssurgeon.EDGE_NAME_ARG);buf.write(" ");    
    buf.write(edgeName); buf.write("\t");

    buf.write(Ssurgeon.RELN_ARG);buf.write(" ");
    buf.write(relation.toString()); buf.write("\t");

    return buf.toString();

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