How to define a linguistic type

ELAN supports the following options:

Adding new linguistic types

Do the following to add a new linguistic type:

  1. Click on Edit menu.

  2. Click on Add New linguistic type… The Add type dialog window appears.

  3. Define the linguistic type (see the section called “Creating linguistic types”).

  4. Click Add to save the linguistic type. Otherwise click Close to exit the window without saving.

Creating linguistic types

Every tier is assigned to a linguistic type. The linguistic type specifies the stereotypical constraints (and, as a consequence, whether or not the tiers are time-alignable).

Information about the relationship between tiers is given in two different places: for each individual tier it is given in the Add tier dialog window (see the section called “Adding new tiers”), and for all tiers belonging to one linguistic type it is given in the Add type window (this section), i.e.:

  • Add tier attributes window: specify the parent tier of the individual tier.

  • Add type window: specify the stereotypical constraints of tiers belonging to one type.

To create a linguistic type, do the following:

  1. Click on the Type menu.

  2. Either go to Add New linguistic type…. In the latter case, click on the linguistic type that you want to change when the Add dialog window appears:

Figure 5.8. Add a linguistic type

Add a linguistic type

  1. Enter a label for the new type

  2. Select the stereotypical constraint:

    • None

    • Time Subdivision

    • Included In

    • Subsymbolic Subdivision

    • Symbolic Association

  3. Associate the new type with a Lexicon Service and Lexicon Entry Field via this option

  4. Associate the new type with an ISO Data Category via this option

  5. Ignore this option


Enter the following information:

  1. Go to Type name. Enter/change the name for the type.

  2. Go to Stereotype. Select the stereotypical constraint relevant to its tiers (see the section called “Basic Information: Annotations, tiers and linguistic types”).

  3. Optionally select a controlled vocabulary (see the section called “Associating a linguistic type with Controlled Vocabularies”).

After you have selected a stereotypical constraint, ELAN automatically enters the correct value next to the box Time-alignable.

Click Add to save the settings; otherwise click Close to exit the window without saving them.

Changing linguistic types

Do the following to change the attributes of an already existing linguistic type:

  1. Click on Edit > Change linguistic type… The Change type dialog window appears.

  2. The labels of all available linguistic types are displayed in the pull down menu, e.g.:

    Figure 5.9. Change a linguistic type

    Change a linguistic type


  3. Click on the linguistic type whose attributes you want to change.

  4. Change the settings.

  5. Click Change to save the changes. Otherwise click Close to exit the window without saving the changes.

Deleting linguistic types

To delete a linguistic type, do the following:

Click on Edit menu.

  1. Go to Delete linguistic type...

  2. A dialog window appears. The names of all available linguistic types are displayed in the pull down menu, e.g.:

    Figure 5.10. Delete a linguistic type

    Delete a linguistic type


  3. Click on the type you want to delete.

  4. Click Delete to delete the type; otherwise click Close to close the dialog window.

You can only delete a linguistic type if it is not used by any of the tiers. If it is used, the following error message appears:

Figure 5.11. Linguistic type is used

Linguistic type is used


Importing linguistic types

It is possible to import linguistic types from .eaf or .etf files.

Click on Edit > Import types.... Here you can select a .eaf or .etf file by clicking on Browse. Select the file you want to use in the next window and click Select. Finally click Import to import the linguistic types from the selected file.

Associating a linguistic type with a Data Category

In ELAN it is possible to associate a linguistic type with a data category of the ISO Data Category Repository (DCR). To do so click on Type in the ELAN main menu and select Change Linguistic Type.... In the window that now appears, click the Browse... button to the right of the ISO Data Category option. In the next window (Figure 5.12, “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 linguistic type.

Figure 5.12. 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”.