[Python] Python NLTK: LookupError for 'averaged_perceptron_tagger_eng' after download

I'm attempting to perform Part-of-Speech (POS) tagging in a Jupyter Notebook using the NLTK package. The averaged_perceptron_tagger resource cannot be located, according to the LookupError I keep receiving.

The odd thing is that NLTK indicates the package is current even though I've already attempted to get it.

I'm attempting to This is a simple illustration of the failing code:

import nltk

# I've also tried tokenizing with nltk.word_tokenize, but the error is the same.
words = "Taj Mahal is a beautiful Monument".split()

# This is the line that produces the error
pos_tags = nltk.pos_tag(words)

print(pos_tags)


What I've attempted Downloading the resource directly: In a notebook cell, I executed the following command, and the result verified that the software had already been downloaded.

import nltk
nltk.download('averaged_perceptron_tagger')


Output:

[nltk_data] Downloading package averaged_perceptron_tagger to
[nltk_data] C:\Users\aryan\AppData\Roaming\nltk_data...
[nltk_data] Package averaged_perceptron_tagger is already up-to-
[nltk_data] date!


I also attempted to automatically handle the download by wrapping my code in a try...except block, but the code still fails with the same problem.

The Mistake When I execute the code, I get the complete traceback as follows:

LookupError Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[16], line 1
----> 1 print(nltk.pos_tag("Taj Mahal is a beautiful Monument".split()))

File ~\anaconda3\Lib\site-packages\nltk\tag\__init__.py:168, in pos_tag(tokens, tagset, lang)
166 :rtype: list(tuple(str, str))
167 """
--> 168 tagger = _get_tagger(lang)
169 return _pos_tag(tokens, tagset, tagger, lang)

File ~\anaconda3\Lib\site-packages\nltk\tag\__init__.py:110, in _get_tagger(lang)
108 tagger = PerceptronTagger(lang=lang)
109 else:
--> 110 tagger = PerceptronTagger()
111 return tagger

# ... (traceback continues) ...

LookupError:
**********************************************************************
Resource averaged_perceptron_tagger_eng not found.
Please use the NLTK Downloader to obtain the resource:

>>> import nltk
>>> nltk.download('averaged_perceptron_tagger_eng')

For more information, see: https://www.nltk.org/data.html

Attempted to load taggers/averaged_perceptron_tagger_eng/

Searched in:
- 'C:\\Users\\aryan/nltk_data'
- 'C:\\Users\\aryan\\anaconda3\\nltk_data'
- 'C:\\Users\\aryan\\anaconda3\\share\\nltk_data'
- 'C:\\Users\\aryan\\anaconda3\\lib\\nltk_data'
- 'C:\\Users\\aryan\\AppData\\Roaming\\nltk_data'
- 'C:\\nltk_data'
- 'D:\\nltk_data'
- 'E:\\nltk_data'
**********************************************************************


Why does NLTK fail to find the resource even after I've downloaded it? How can I fix this LookupError in my environment?

Thanks for your help!

Continue reading...