Consulting a Lexicon

To improve consistency an annotator can use a controlled vocabulary (CV). From a CV an entry can be selected that serves as annotation value. Sometimes, however, it is not immediately clear what CV entry should be selected given a certain media fragment. In that case looking up a proposed annotation in a relevant lexicon could help to make a decision. ELAN enables the user to perform lookups in lexica through the following steps:

  1. Set up a new Lexicon Service (see Setting up a Lexicon Service).
  2. Enhance a Tier Type so that it's tiers can do a lexicon lookup (sec Set the Lexicon Service and entry field information for a Tier Type).
  3. Perform the lookup (see Perform a Lexicon Lookup).

Setting up a Lexicon Service

A Lexicon Service is in essence a link to a certain lexicon that is hosted on a certain lexicon server. That means that for a user to be able to connect to a lexicon, he needs to connect to the server and subsequently select one of the available lexica. You can either add a new lexicon or Import an existing one. To add a new lexicon do the following:

  1. In the main menu select Edit > Lexicon Services...
  2. In the Edit Lexicon Services click Add

    Figure 2.42. Edit Lexicon Services

    Edit Lexicon Services


    Note

    If the Add button is disabled, it means that there is no ELAN extension loaded that can handle Lexicon Services. To install an extension, please consult the release notes of ELAN at https://tla.mpi.nl/tools/tla-tools/elan/.

  3. On the first page of the dialog that now appears..
    1. Enter a name that is later used to refer to this Lexicon Service.
    2. Select the Lexicon Server Type.
    3. Enter the URL of the lexicon server.
    4. Enter your username and password for the lexicon server.

    Figure 2.43. Name and Lexicon Service Info

    Name and Lexicon Service Info


  4. Click Next
  5. On the second page of the dialog select the lexicon you wish to connect to. The bottom half of the page will contain the description of the lexicon.

    Figure 2.44. Lexicon Selection

    Lexicon Selection


  6. Click Finish

A new Lexicon Service will appear in the drop down list of the Edit Lexicon Service dialog. Click Close to close this dialog.

To import a lexicon do the following:

  1. In the Edit Lexicon Services click Import
  2. The following dialog window will appear:

    Figure 2.45. Previously defined services

    Previously defined services


Once you have selected a service name from the list, you can either click Delete to delete it, or Import to import it. The service name will now be displayed in the Edit Lexicon Service window and you can now add it (see steps 2-6 above).

Set the Lexicon Service and entry field information for a Tier Type

Before an annotation can be used for a lexicon lookup, the tier type of the tier must have a reference to a Lexicon Service. In addition, there must be a reference to the field of an entry that is of interest. To set this information for a tier type, do the following:

  1. In the main menu select Type > Change Tier Type...
  2. Select the a tier type in the pull down menu Select Type.
  3. Next to Lexicon Connection click Select...
  4. Select a Lexicon Service in the drop down list at the top of the dialog.
  5. A list of fields that compose a lexical entry is requested from the lexicon server and shown in the table. Select one.
  6. Click OK

Figure 2.46. Select a Lexicon Service and Entry Field

Select a Lexicon Service and Entry Field


In the Change Type dialog the Lexicon Service name and Lexical Entry Field name are shown. Click Change to commit to the new Lexicon settings.

Perform a Lexicon Lookup

If the tier type of a tier is enhanced with lexicon service and entry field information, lexicon lookups using the annotations of that tier can be performed:

  1. Open the Lexicon Entry tab in main ELAN window.
  2. Select an annotation on a tier of which the tier type is enhanced with a lexicon service and entry field information.
  3. In the Lexicon Entry tab the annotation is entered in the field Annotation and the Get Lexicon Entries button is enabled to indicate a lookup is possible.
  4. Select a constraint from the drop down list.
  5. Click the Get Lexicon Entries button.
  6. A lookup is performed and the results are presented on the right side of the tab in the form of a tree structure.
  7. Open an entry and subsequent entry nodes by clicking the open icon in front of a node (if there is one).
  8. If a node value consist of a URL, selecting the node will open the URL in your default browser.
  9. If you select the top node of an entry, the Change annotation button is enabled to indicate that you can use the value of the entry field as value of the active annotation. Click this button to do so. You can also change the value of the dependent tiers by clicking Change annotation + dependents.

Figure 2.47. The Lexicon Entry tab

The Lexicon Entry tab