Interlinearization mode is a text oriented mode designed for parsing and glossing annotations to one or more lines of interlinearized text. This can be done manually or with the use of one or more so-called Analyzers. The segmentation and (typically) the transcription of speech events need to be done in one of the other modes before interlinearization can be added in this mode.
Analyzers are software modules that accept an annotation as input and produce suggestions for one or more annotations as output. Examples of the type of processing analyzers can perform are tokenization, morphological parsing and lookup of glosses. The behavior of some analyzers can be configured in a settings panel. Some analyzers need a connection to a lexicon, others can perform their task based on the input alone. Analyzers are implemented as extensions so that others can create and add their own analyzers (eventually, the API still has to be finalized and documented).
Part of the user interface of this mode is a Lexicon panel, the front end of a Lexicon Component module. It allows to create, import and edit a lexicon and its entries. Lexicons are stored separately from annotation data in a new data format. These are the lexicons that analyzers can get access to.
The lexicon and analyzer modules are work-in-progress. A lot is still missing, incomplete and/or under-documented.
To start the Interlinearization mode, click OptionsInterlinearization Mode from the main window.
The main screen is split up in 4 panels, the panels on the left side are used for global settings, not tied to any particular transcription. The panels on the right side of the screen contain more specific settings and the transcriptions.
To start working in Interlinearization Mode, you need to have already set up a proper tier structure. This can be done in Annotation mode, please refer to How to define a tier type and How to define a tier and its attributes for more information about tier structures.
It is also important that you have set up a Lexicon service (See Setting up a Lexicon Service and that it is associated to the proper tier type. (You can associate a lexicon in the Tier type dialog under 'Lexicon connection').
Currently, you can choose from the following analyzers:
The names are somewhat misleading; both the Parse, Gloss and Lexicon analyzer require access to a lexicon. The Parse analyzer morphologically parses annotations from a word (or token) level tier, based on lexical units (prefixes, stems, suffixes etc.) available in the lexicon. The results are shown as parse suggestions in a suggestion window from which the user can select one. This analyzer requires one source tier and one target tier, where the target is of a subdivision tier type.
The Gloss analyzer looks up the source annotation in the lexicon and lists all glosses found in the matched entries. The results are again presented as suggestions from which the user can select one. This analyzer requires one source tier and one target tier, where the target is of a symbolic association tier type.
The Lexicon analyzer is a combination of the parse and the gloss analyzer. By configuring the lexicon analyzer, the source tier containing the annotations will both be parsed and the glossed in one action. This analyzer requires one source tier and two target tiers (see above).
The Whitespace analyzer splits the selected source annotation at whitespaces and places the result on the target tier. It does not need any user confirmation. This analyzer requires one source tier and one target tier, where the target is of a subdivision tier type.
When configuring analyzers and their source and target tiers, it is possible that the target tier from one analyzer, is the source tier for the next analyzer. The configuration of the tiers is based on tier types rather than on individual tiers.
Configuration on the basis of individual tiers might be added later as an option as well.
The main purpose of the Lexicon Component in ELAN is to support the (semi-automated) interlinearization process. It is not intended as a full-fledged lexicon tool, though the data model supports a bit more than strictly necessary. The data model and XML-based data format are similar to the LIFT format, but simplified.
The interlinearization mode supports the visualization of one lexicon at the time, but multiple lexicons can be stored to choose from. You can create new lexicons, import and export existing lexicons and add or remove single lexical entries of a lexicon that is currently active.
The lexicon overview can be adjusted to display or hide certain columns. To do so, you have to right-click on a lexical entry to display the context-menu. From there, you can show or hide columns of the lexicon.
To create a lexicon, simply click the Lexicon Actions... button and choose Create New Lexicon.... A new dialog will appear, allowing you to fill out details about your new lexicon.
When the details have been filled out (a Name and a Language are required), click Apply to create the lexicon. Next, you can add lexical entries to the lexicon. you can do this by clicking the Add button on the bottom of the Lexicon main panel. A new dialog will appear, allowing you to create an entry for your lexicon. Alternatively, if there already are lexical entries in the lexicon, you can right-click and choose Add from the context-menu.
When you are finished, click Apply to add the entry to the lexicon. Some fields are required, these will be highlighted if you click Apply while not all requird fields are filled in.
Editing a lexical entry can be done by either clicking the Edit button on the bottom of the panel, or by right-clicking the entry and choosing Edit from the context-menu. A dialog will open, displaying the chosen lexical unit. Some general information is shown, such as ID and date of creation. To edit the entry, click on the value that you would like to add or change. It will become active and ready for editing. Hitting the Enter key accepts the value of the current field and activates the next field.
Removal of a lexical entry is done by highlighting the entry and then either clicking the Remove button on the bottom of the Lexicon panel, or by right-clicking the entry and choosing Remove from the context-menu.
There is currently no Undo/Redo mechanism for lexicon edit actions!
More documentation about the structure of lexical entries, about which fields are required, what is hardcoded etc. will follow. The same for native, import and export formats etc.
In order to interlinearize annotations on a specific tier successfully, some configuration needs to be done. To do so, you will need to choose one or more analyzers and configure what tier types will be used as source and which ones will be the target(s).
First, open the configuration menu by clicking the Edit configuration... button on the lower right.
From the dialog that appears, you can choose the analyzers you would like to use and set the source and target tiers for each analyzer.
First, you choose a certain analyzer, as described in Types of analyzers. You can choose multiple analyzers, one per line.
Each chosen analyzer will need a source and target tier type for it to function. You cannot choose the same type twice for one analyzer, and tiers must relate to each other as indicated by the analyzer's constraints. In the case of the Lexicon analyzer, this is a combined analyzer (parse and gloss analysis) and therefore needs two target tier types.
In a common setup, when two seperate analyzers are used, the target tier of the first analyzer will function as the source tier for the second analyzer. When you are done with the configuration, click Apply to finish and go back to the main screen.
An important counterpart of the configuration of analyzers that require access to a lexicon, consists of linking tier types to the proper fields in a specific lexicon. This way the analyzer knows which field in which lexicon to query. See ...
The interlinearization panel shows an overview of the tier structures that were created in annotation mode. Results from an interlinearization action will be shown here and added to the designated tier that was set in the Analyzer configuration.
A context-menu for this panel is available, by right-clicking an annotation. This allows you to start interlinearization of an annotation, delete an annotation, or add new annotations.
You can also start the interlinearization by clicking the Interlinearize button on top of the panel. This will start a process in which one annotation after the other will be analyzed, starting with the active annotation or the first one of the right type in the view. Pressing the Escape key or clicking the Close button in the suggestion window stops the process. The Recursive checkbox determines that, if selected, any result produced by an analyzer is in turn analyzed based on all configurations that have that (first target) tier as a source.
When you click the Interlinearize button or right-click and choose Interlinearize from the context-menu, interlinearization will commence. A panel will appear, containing possible entries found in the lexicon that is currently in use. This panel is called the Suggestion View.
The image above displays the Suggestion View with the Lexicon analyzer set. As you can see, it both suggests a certain parsing of the annotations as well as suggesting a possible gloss. Based on the current lexicon, multiple suggestions are displayed. You can select the suggestion you would like to use by clicking the box. Interlinearization will then go to the next annotation on the source tier (if the process was started with the Interlinearize button. You can stop the process at any time by clicking Close in the top-right of the Suggestion View panel).
There are several keyboard shortcuts for the SuggestionView:
To improve the selection process, several analyzers remember the choices that you made before. The options you most frequently chose earlier, will be moved to the top of the list. A little header saying "chosen x times before" will appear in the suggested option too.
It can happen that there are so many suggestions that they are (too) hard to overview. There may be many similar-looking options, e.g. similar looking parses. To get some visual aid, you can press Shift and hover the mouse pointer over the fragments of a suggestion. This will trigger a colouring effect: all suggestions with the same value at that position will be displayed with the same background colour (i.e. there will be as many different colours as there are different values in that position). By then clicking one of the suggestions (Shift still pressed), only the suggestions with the same colour will remain in view, all others are removed. This can be a way to narrow down the available choices.
This is still a very preliminary presentation of suggestions and a preliminary workflow.