How to define a tier and its attributes

ELAN offers the following options:

Adding new tiers

Do the following to add a new tier:

  1. Click on Tier > Add New Tier.... The Add Tier dialog window appears.
  2. Define the tier attributes:

    Figure 2.11. Tier attributes

    Tier attributes


Enter the following information:

  1. Go to Tier name. Enter the tier name.

    The tier name is the name that is displayed in the Timeline, Interlinear and Subtitle Viewer.

  2. Go to Participant. Enter the name of the participant whose utterance or other behavior is being transcribed (optional).
  3. Go to Annotator. Enter the name or code of the creator of the annotations on this tier (optional).
  4. Go to Parent tier. Select a parent tier from the pull-down menu.
    • If the tier has no parent tier, select none.
    • Otherwise select the appropriate parent tier.
  5. Go to Tier type. Select a tier type from the predefined list in the pull-down menu (see How to define a tier type).

    Note

    The list of possible tier types is dependent on the parent tier that is chosen. E.g., if there is no parent tier ("none" in the pull down menu), the tier types to choose from are of the stereotype "none" (see How to define a tier type).

  6. Go to Input Method. Select what language to use as input method from the pull-down menu or select None. If None is selected, it means that the system's default language will always be used as input method for this tier.

    Whenever you enter or change annotations on that tier, the text entry box is automatically preconfigured for the default character set.

  7. Set the Content Language. This refers to the annotated language in the tier. This can be different for each tier, useful if you have multi-lingual content. Also see Defining languages for your content).
  8. Click the More Options... button if you want to change the color of the tier name and the font of the annotations. In the new dialog window you can change them by clicking Browse..., selecting a color or font and clicking OK. 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 favourite colors is saved and used the next time you start ELAN. To apply the new color and font click Apply. The following dialog window will then appear:

    Figure 2.12. Change Tier Attributes Settings for Multiple Tiers

    Change Tier Attributes Settings for Multiple Tiers

In the upper part of the window you can select the attribute settings you wish to apply, i.e. Tier, Color, Tier, Highlight and Tier Font. In the bottom part of the window you can decide to change the preferred attribute settings for multiple tiers in one action, i.e. by selecting all tiers of the same type, or all depending tiers, or all tiers with the same participant. Finally click Add to save the tier and its attributes. Otherwise click Cancel to exit the window without saving.

Importing tiers

You can reuse the tiers (together with their tier types) you created before in other .eaf or .etf (templates, see Saving a template) files:

  1. Select Tier > Add new tier…
  2. Click on the Import tab
  3. Click on Browse…
  4. Select the eaf or etf file from which you want to import a tier and confirm your choice by clicking on Select
  5. Finally click on Import.

Figure 2.13. Import tiers

Import tiers


Note

If you import a tier type that already exists, a postfix like –cp1 or –cp2 will be added to the imported version.

Creating a tier using the Silence Recognizer

ELAN offers the possibility to create tiers based on the output of an audio recognizer. A simple silence recognizer that comes with ELAN will show how to use an audio recognizer in ELAN. The recognizer can determine segments of silence in an audio signal based on examples given by the user. To use it for segmenting the audio first open the tab Recognizers in the main ELAN window. From there, you can load or save a (previous) parameter setup, detach the tab from the main screen and configure if a recognizer should prompt for file in- and output locations (if applicable). Some recognizers include a separate help file, which you also can consult.

Figure 2.14. Silence Recognizer

Silence Recognizer


Next, choose the appropriate recognizer from the pull down menu at the top of the tab, in this case Silence Recognizer MPI-PL. In the parameters section you can choose the appropriate waveform the recognizer should use. The Selections Panel allows you either create selections from silent parts of the waveform or it can analyse a specified tier, if the chosen recognizer allows it.

Figure 2.15. Audio Recognizer detached

Audio Recognizer detached

The Silence Recognizer uses examples to determine what is silence and what is not. To give the recognizer an example first select a part of the audio that is silence (see also Making a selection). Then click on + in the Selection Panel. The begin and end times of the example are shown in the list beneath the Add Channel buttons. By selecting a line in the list and clicking - an example can be removed. By double clicking a line in the list the associated time interval is selected in ELAN.

After giving sufficient examples, click on the Start button to start the recognition. During the recognition you can click Cancel to stop the recognition.

The result of the recognition is a segmentation in the Waveform Viewer for each channel for which an example is given. In the case of the silence recognizer the segments are either labelled 's' for the beginning of a silent segment or 'x' for the beginning of a non-silent segment. If you are not satisfied with the segmentation, you can change the examples or the duration parameters and start a new recognition.

Note

The second and subsequent runs of the audio recognizer can be several times faster than the first run. This is caused by the buffering the audio recognizer applies.

Figure 2.16. Audio Recognizer results

Audio Recognizer results

If the labelling is correct, you can create a tier with annotations reflecting the labelling in the Waveform Viewer. Click on Create Tier(s)... in the Recognizers tab. On the tab Per Segmentation of the dialog window select the channel that has the segmentation you want to use from the pull down menu. In the table Select and configure segments first select the labels that must be included in the tier. If necessary, change the label by clicking in the third column of a label and enter a new label. Check the Number segments column if you want to number each annotation with a particular label. The number will be appended to the label. Finally, click the Create button to create the tier.

If all segment labels are to be used, open the All Segmentations tab instead of the Per Segmentation tab. On the All Segmentations tab you are only asked to select the channels for which a tier must be created. Again, clicking the Create button will make ELAN create the tier.

Each recognizer will have its specific controls. These controls can be found in the parameters section of the Recognizers tab. In the case of the silence recognizer there are two sliders: Minimal Silence Duration and Minimal Non Silence Duration. When using another recognizer, these sliders are replaced by the controls implemented by that recognizer.

To learn more about creating and adding other recognizers, please read the relevant section on the Source Release Notes page (https://tla.mpi.nl/tools/tla-tools/elan/src-release-notes.html).

Changing tier attributes

Do the following to change the attributes of an already existing tier:

  1. Click on Tier menu.
  2. Go to Change tier attributes…
  3. Click on the drop down box and select the tier which attributes you want to change. The Change tier attributes dialog window for that tier appears.
  4. After making the changes, click on Change to save them. Otherwise click Cancel to exit the window without saving.

Figure 2.17. Tier menu

Tier menu


Figure 2.18. Change tier attributes

Change tier attributes


Note

Changing the Parent Tier in this dialog is only possible if there are no annotations on the tier (because of possible data loss). To change the Parent Tier in case there are already annotations, use the Reparent Tier option (see Changing the parent of a tier). Similar limitations apply to changing the Type of the tier, for the same reason. To change the Type of a tier in a safe way, use the Copy Tier option (see Copying tiers).

Deleting tiers

Do the following to delete a tier:

Use the Tier menu.

  1. Click on Tier menu.
  2. Go to Delete tier… A dialog window appears.
  3. The labels of all available tiers are displayed a pull down box, e.g.:

    Figure 2.19. Delete tier

    Delete tier


  4. Click on the tier that you want to delete. To select multiple tiers and delete them in one action, select the tiers you want to delete (either by browsing through them with the mouse, or using the control or shift key), in the pull down box in the delete tier dialog window. A warning dialog appears asking you to confirm the deletion., e.g.:

    Figure 2.20. Deleting tier confirmation

    Deleting tier confirmation


  5. Click Yes to delete the tier/s and all its child tiers; click No to not delete them.

Note

If you delete a tier, you will lose all its annotations.

If you delete a parent tier, all its child tiers will be automatically deleted as well. Please make sure that you do not accidentally delete a child tier.

To delete a parent tier without deleting its child tiers, you have to assign the child tier to another parent or make it an independent tier. Afterwards you can safely remove the parent tier. For instructions on how to change a tiers parent, see Changing the parent of a tier.

Merging tiers

ELAN offers the possibility to merge two tiers. There are several reasons why you would want to merge tiers. For instance, one could think of a situation where two people are transcribing different parts of the same media file. If both people have finished, the transcriptions can be merged via File > Merge Transcriptions.... You can also merge tiers across multiple eaf files, using the File...Multiple File Processing... option. See Merge tiers for more information about that.

To get the annotations of both tiers onto one tier, use Tier > Merge Tiers.... In the dialog window select the two tiers to merge and click Next. Set the criteria for merging the annotations. When checking the option Only process overlapping annotations, ELAN only merges annotations that have the same value. In this case, the values of both annotations are not concatenated, so the created annotation contains the value only once.

Enter a name for the new tier and select the desired tier type or add a new type. Next, select Concatenate the values of overlapping annotations and click Finish to create the new tier. Now all annotations of the original tiers are on the new tier. Overlapping annotations are merged to one annotation. The merged annotations begins where the first of the overlapping annotations begins and ends where the last one ends. The values of the overlapping annotations are concatenated. Optionally you can specify the value the merging annotations should have.

Merging tiers can also be used to get some time statistics of the combination of two tiers. Again, select Tier > Merge Tiers..., select the two tiers to merge and click Next. After setting the criteria, entering a name for the new tier and selecting the desired tier type, select Value in the following time format and the desired time format. Finally click Finish. Overlapping annotations are merged and the annotation's value is the total duration of the overlapping annotations. (More about annotations statistics can be found in Annotations Statistics.)

As a final example, consider an audio recognizer (see Creating a tier using the Silence Recognizer) creating not one but multiple tiers. If you want to put the annotations of those tiers on one tier, you could use the Merge Tiers... option to achieve this.

Merging tiers (Classic)

Another way to get the annotations of both tiers onto one tier, is to use Tier > Merge Tiers...Classic. This method is somewhat simplified.

In the dialog window select the two tiers to merge and click Next. Enter a name for the new tier and select the desired tier type. Now select Concatenate the values of overlapping annotations and click Finish to create the new tier. Now all annotations of the original tiers are on the new tier. Overlapping annotations are merged to one annotation. The merged annotations begins where the first of the overlapping annotations begins and ends where the last one ends. The values of the overlapping annotations are concatenated.

When checking the option Only process if the overlapping annotations have the same value, ELAN only merges annotations that have the same value. In this case, the values of both annotations are not concatenated, so the created annotation contains the value only once. Optionally you can specify the value the merging annotations should have.

Merging tiers can also be used to get some time statistics of the combination of two tiers. Again, select Tier > Merge Tiers..., select the two tiers to merge and click Next. After entering a name for the new tier and selecting the desired tier type, select Set the duration over the overlap as the annotation's value and the desired time format. Finally click Finish. Overlapping annotations are merged and the annotation's value is the total duration of the overlapping annotations. (More about annotations statistics can be found in Annotations Statistics.)

As a final example, consider an audio recognizer (see Creating a tier using the Silence Recognizer) creating not one but multiple tiers. If you want to put the annotations of those tiers on one tier, you could use the Merge Tiers... option to achieve this.

Merging tier groups

In ELAN it is possible to merge a tier group (an independent tier and all of its dependent tiers) with another tier group and put the result in a new tier group. The names of the tiers in the new group are the names of the tiers in the first group with a suffix entered by the user. The mapping of tiers is based on name patterns. For instance, the tier W-RGph is mapped onto K-RGph, but not onto K-Spch.

To merge two tier groups, click in the main menu on Tier > Merge Tier Groups... and select the two independent tiers to be merged. After clicking Next, enter a suffix that is to be concatenated to the tier names of the first tier group for the naming of the new tier group and click Finish.

Changing the parent of a tier

Previous versions of ELAN offered an option to change the parent of a tier. As this operation could cause data loss when not performed carefully, this function has been disabled. However, what can be done now as an alternative is making a copy of a tier and altering that copy. This prevents the possible loss of data, as the original tier stays the same. At the same time the tier type of the copy can be changed as well. In order to maintain the overview during this potentially complicated operation a wizard guides you through this process, which can be started via the Tier > Change parent of tier… menu.

Note

Though an undo option is available it still is a good idea to make a backup of your files before proceeding.

Table 2.3. Change parent of tier wizard


As the result of this process the selected tier (and its children) will be copied and they will become dependent upon the newly chosen parent tier. In our example the W-Words tier, previously a child of W-Spch, became an independent tier:

Figure 2.21. Dependent to independent tier

Dependent to independent tier


Note that as the tier is not moved but copied the names have been changed: a postfix “-cp” has been added to the copies. The original can be deleted afterwards if you are satisfied with the result of the operation, while the copies can be renamed to reflect the original tier names.

If you decide to assign a tier to a different parent tier, ELAN will automatically align its annotations with that of the new parent tier (based on overlapping time intervals). In this case, if there is an annotation on the referring tier, but no overlapping annotation on the parent tier, ELAN will delete this annotation. Be very careful that you do not lose such annotations accidentally. A referring tier can be turned into an independent time-alignable tier without any problem.

Add New Participant

ELAN offers the possibility to create a new set of tiers for a new participant based on an already existing set of tiers. To add a new participant click on Tier > Add New Participant.... The following Add new participant dialog window appears:

Figure 2.22. Add New Participant

Add New Participant

If you have not defined a tier structure, or set a first participant yet, this warning will appear:

Figure 2.23. Warning dialog box

Warning dialog box

This means you need to create a tier structure first, which is a tier with at least one child tier, or create a new tier with a participant set in the tier attributes. See Adding new tiers on how to create a tier structure and how to define a tier with the participant attribute set.

The new set of tiers for the extra participant can either be based on an existing tier group with all its depending tiers, or on all tiers with a specific participant attribute.

Figure 2.24. Add New Participant Example 1

Add New Participant Example 1

In this example, the option "tier structure" is selected (1). This means only one tier structure will be copied and used with a new participant. "W-Spch" is the selected tier structure. The name of the new participant will be "Participant 3" (2).  

In this case, the prefix is changed to distinguish the new tier structure, with the value "W" being changed to "X" (3). The value to be replaced can also be left empty. In that case, the replacement value will be added to the name of the structure. By clicking "OK", the process will be started and the new tier structure for the new participant will be added to the timeline viewer (4). When this is done, you can close the dialog box.

It is also possible to add a new participant based on an existing participant. This method will copy all of the tier attributes to the new participant:

Figure 2.25. Add New Participant Example 2

Add New Participant Example 2

In this example, the participant option is checked (1). This means all tiers and tier structures associated with a certain participant will be copied to the new participant. In this case, the participant of whom the attributes will be copied is "Participant 2". The tiers that will be copied are the “K-RGU” structure and the “K-Spch” tier.  

Next, specify a name for the new participant (2). The name will be in the tier attributes after the adding of the participant has been done. Finally, you will need to add or change the prefix or the suffix for the new tiers (3). The value to be replaced can be left empty; the value for replacement cannot. In the example, the prefix “K” is changed to “X”. When everything is set, click “OK”, the new tiers will appear in the timeline (4). After that, you can close the dialog box.

Hovering over the tier in the timeline window will show the tooltip, displaying tier info with the associated participant:

Figure 2.26. Add New Participant tooltip result

Add New Participant tooltip result

Note

  • The new prefix/suffix value for replacement cannot be empty.
  • The value to be replaced can be left empty. If you do not enter any value to be replaced, the new value for the replacement will be added either as suffix or prefix (depending on your choice) to the selected tier.
  • Only the tier structures are copied, annotations on the source tiers will not be copied.