Controlled Vocabularies

The creation of a CV

When you frequently use a certain linguistic type with a limited number of annotation values, it might be a good idea to associate a Controlled Vocabulary (CV) with it. Such a CV consists of a number of predefined values that a user can choose from when editing an annotation, thus making the task of the annotator less error-prone. E.g. one can choose to create a controlled vocabulary for part of speech tagging, as the tags that are used often reoccur. In order to do this select Edit > Edit Controlled Vocabularies. The following dialog will appear:

Figure 5.23. Edit controlled vocabulary

Edit controlled vocabulary


To create a new CV, do the following:

  1. Enter a CV Name and a description

  2. Click on the Add button

  3. Now enter each CV entry and its description.

  4. Confirm every entry addition by clicking on the Add button or by hitting Enter

Note

The undo function in the CV dialog window only works as long as that window is active. Once it is closed changes cannot be undone anymore.

By clicking More Options... (not yet shown in the figure above) you can choose a color that will fill the lower part of every annotation frame containing the selected CV entry. Moreover, you can choose a shortcut key to edit an annotation with a single key stroke.

The color chooser has four tabs. The last three contain different ways to choose a color, which is subsequently displayed in the lower part of the window. In the first tab you can add or insert the color displayed below and you can copy, paste and delete the selected color. The list of favorite colors is saved and used the next time you start ELAN.

Associating a CV entry with a Data Category

In ELAN it is possible to associate an entry of a controlled vocabulary with a data category of the ISO Data Category Repository (DCR). To do so click on Edit in the ELAN main menu and select Edit Controlled Vocabularies.... In the window that now appears, click the Browse... button to the right of the ISO Data Category option. In the next window (Figure 5.24, “Local Data Category Selection”), first select a profile in the left panel and then select a data category in the middle panel. Finally click on Apply to associate the selected data category to the CV entry.

Figure 5.24. Local Data Category Selection

Local Data Category Selection


More information about the ISO DCR and how to use it can be found in the section called “Data categories”.

Importing an existing CV

Instead of creating a Controlled Vocabulary again every time ELAN also supports the possibility to reuse existing CVs. A first way to achieve this is to use a template file that contains a CV when creating a new *.eaf file. (See the section called “Creating a new document”) Alternatively you can import a CV for already existing files:

  1. select Edit > Edit Controlled Vocabularies

  2. Click on Import CV

  3. Select the template from which you want to import a CV

  4. Choose Open

  5. Now all CVs that are stored in the selected template file will be imported

If you try to import a CV with the same name as an already existing CV a dialog will pop up asking what to do:

Figure 5.25. Controlled vocabulary already exists warning

Controlled vocabulary already exists warning


  • Skip CV: ignore the CV from the template

  • Replace Existing CV: overwrite the existing CV with that from the template

  • Rename CV: opens a dialog asking you to give a new name for the imported CV

  • Merge CV's: entries from the imported CV that are not in an existing CV are imported.

Exporting a CV

A CV can be exported by saving the current file as a template. (See the section called “Saving a selection as .eaf file”)

Using CVs

When editing an annotation that belongs to a linguistic type associated with a CV, a drop down box appears. Just select the value to be filled in:

Figure 5.26. Controlled vocabulary drop down box

Controlled vocabulary drop down box


Note

It is possible to by-pass the controlled vocabulary constraints by holding shift and double clicking on the active annotation (right clicking and selecting “Modify annotation value” while holding shift does the same).

Note

If a CV entry is associated with a data category of the ISO DCR (see the section called “Associating a CV entry with a Data Category”), the annotation is also associated with that data category.

Associating a linguistic type with Controlled Vocabularies

Open the Change the Linguistic type dialog (via Type > Change linguistic type) and make a choice from the Use Controlled Vocabulary dropdown box:

Figure 5.27. Change linguistic type

Change linguistic type