Chapter 2. Annotations

Table of Contents

Basic Information: Annotations, tiers and tier types
Defining languages for your content
How to define a tier type
Adding new tier types
Changing tier types
Deleting tier types
Importing tier types
Associating a tier type with a Data Category
How to define a tier and its attributes
Adding new tiers
Importing tiers
Creating a tier using the Silence Recognizer
Changing tier attributes
Deleting tiers
Merging tiers
Merging tiers (Classic)
Merging tier groups
Changing the parent of a tier
Add New Participant
Data categories
Controlled Vocabularies
The creation of a CV
Setting language(s) for a CV
Associating a CV entry with a Data Category
Importing an existing CV
Using an External CV
Exporting a CV
Associating a tier type with Controlled Vocabularies
Using CV's
Consulting a Lexicon
Setting up a Lexicon Service
Set the Lexicon Service and entry field information for a Tier Type
Perform a Lexicon Lookup
Signbank lexicon service
Media Displayer
How to make a selection
Making a selection on an independent tier
Selecting multiple annotations
Using the selection controls
Creating annotation units without gaps
Making and saving a selection on a referring tier
Deselecting a selection
Changing the boundaries of an existing selection and annotation
Shifting annotations
Activating and deactivating the Bulldozer mode or Shift mode
How to enter and edit annotations
Entering annotations (into the Inline Edit box)
Entering annotations (into the Edit Annotation box)
Entering annotations from a Controlled Vocabulary
Entering annotations before/after other annotations
Creating depending annotations for a active annotation
Creating annotations on dependent tiers
Creating annotations from gaps
Creating regular annotations
Duplicating annotation values
Snap Annotations
Automatic labelling and numbering
Modifying the content of annotations
Modifying the boundaries of annotations
Moving annotations to another tier
Changing the case of Annotations
Deleting annotation values
Deleting annotations
Deleting annotations and annotation values on multiple tiers
Split Annotations
Merging annotations
Entering annotations in different character sets
Associating an annotation with a Data Category
Spell checking
Setting up a spell checking service
Spell checking
How to undo an action
Tokenize a tier
How to filter and copy tiers
Filtering tiers
Copying tiers
Copying annotations from one tier to another tier
How to detect annotation overlaps
Creating annotations from overlaps
Comparing annotators
Create annotation by subtraction
Copy and paste annotations
Copy annotation
Paste annotation
Paste annotation here
Copy and paste annotation groups
Duplicate annotation
Copy all annotations from one tier to another.
Synopsis
Web Services
WebLicht
Information about annotations
Annotations Spreadsheet
Annotations Statistics
Annotation Density Plot

You can use the ELAN program for annotating your data. This annotation process involves three steps: defining tier types and tiers (see Adding new tier types and How to define a tier and its attributes), selecting time intervals (see How to make a selection), and entering annotations (see How to enter and edit annotations).

Basic Information: Annotations, tiers and tier types

The following illustration shows an example of an annotation document:

Figure 2.1. Annotation basics

Annotation basics


Each annotation is entered on a tier and assigned to a time interval (either directly or to the time interval of another annotation).

All tiers can be displayed simultaneously in the Timeline or Interlinear Viewer (The Timeline Viewer and the Interlinear Viewer), but four of them can be displayed additionally in the Subtitle Viewer. It is useful to select the tier you are currently working on in a Subtitle Viewer because this viewer is bigger and supports line wrapping (which makes it easier to read along during playback).

It is also possible to select one tier as the active tier. This can be done by double clicking on the tier name in the Timeline or Interlinear Viewer. When a tier is active, its name is underlined and displayed in red. Adding a new annotation to a tier by the keyboard shortcut ALT+N is only possible when that tier is active (see How to enter and edit annotations).

A tier is a set of annotations that share the same characteristics, e.g., one tier containing the orthographic transcription of the speakers utterances, and another tier containing the free translation of these utterances.

The following two types of tiers exist:

  • Independent tiers, which contain annotations that are linked directly to a time interval, i.e., they are “time-alignable”.
  • Referring tiers, which contain annotations that are linked to annotations on another tier (i.e., to annotations on their so-called “parent tier”). They are usually not linked directly to the time axis. (Some of them may be linked – but only within the time interval determined by their independent parent tier, see below.)

One example: a transcription tier could be independent and time-alignable, as it is linked directly to the time intervals of the speakers utterances. A translation tier, by contrast, would be referring and not time-alignable: it refers to the transcription tier – not directly to the time axis. By definition, it inherits its time alignment from the transcription tier, i.e., from its parent tier.

In the Timeline and Interlinear Viewers, the label of a referring tier is assigned the same color as the label of its independent parent tier.

It is possible to build up nested hierarchies, i.e., tier A can be the parent tier of tier B, and tier B can be the parent tier of tier C, etc.

For example:

Table 2.1. Nested tier dependencies

tier: type: hierarchical relation:
ref (referent) independent parent of tx and ft
tx (text) referring parent of mb
mb (morpheme break) referring parent of gl and ps
gl (gloss), ps (part of speech) referring -

Figure 2.2. Tier dependencies

Tier dependencies

Figure 2.3. Tier dependencies in the timeline viewer

Tier dependencies in the timeline viewer

Note

Parent and child tiers are linked in such a way that some changes made on a parent tier will also affect its child tiers (but not vice versa):

  • If you delete a parent tier, all its child tiers are automatically deleted as well. Similarly, when you delete an annotation on a parent tier, all corresponding annotations on its child tiers are deleted as well.
  • If you change the time interval of an annotation on a parent tier, the time interval of the corresponding annotation on all its child tiers are changed accordingly. The time interval of a child tier cannot be changed independently.

You can view the existing dependency relations by clicking on View menu, and then on Tier Dependencies.

Each tier is assigned to a tier type (see also How to define a tier and its attributes). A tier type denotes the linguistic data that is contained in the referring tier. Examples of names for tier types are utterances, words, orthography, phonetic transcription, PoS (part of speech), but any name can be used. Each tier type specifies a number of constraints that hold for all tiers assigned to that type. Such constraints are bundled into so-called ‘stereotypes’. The following five stereotypes are currently available:

Table 2.2. Tier type stereotypes

  • None

The annotation on the tier is linked directly to the time axis, i.e., the annotation is entered on an independent tier. Two annotations cannot overlap.

Tiers of this type are independent tiers (cannot have a parent tier).

  • Time Subdivision

The annotation on the parent tier can be sub-divided into smaller units, which, in turn, can be linked to time intervals. Note that there are no time gaps allowed, i.e., the smaller units have to immediately follow each other.

Tiers of this type are dependent tiers (must have a parent tier).

E.g., an utterance transcribed on a parent tier can be sub-divided into words – each of which is then linked to its corresponding time interval.

Note

Annotations on such tiers are time-alignable. They differ from annotations on independent tiers in that they are assigned to an interval that is contained within the interval of their parent annotation.

  • Symbolic Subdivision

Similar to Time Subdivision, except that the smaller units cannot be linked to a time interval. The smaller units form a chain (an ordered sequence) of units.

Tiers of this type are dependent tiers (must have a parent tier).

E.g., a word on a parent tier can be sub-divided into individual morphemes (which are not linked to a time interval).

  • Included In[a]

All annotations on a tier of this type are linked to the time axis and are enclosed within the boundaries of an annotation on the parent tier. However, there can be gaps between the child annotations (unlike Time Subdivision).

Tiers of this type are dependent tiers (must have a parent tier).

E.g., a sentence with a silence can be split up into words while the silence corresponds to a gap in the child annotations (i.e. the separate words).

  • Symbolic Association

The annotation on the parent tier cannot be sub-divided further, i.e., there is a one-to-one correspondence between the parent annotation and its referring annotation on this tier.

Tiers of this type are dependent tiers (must have a parent tier).

E.g., one sentence on a parent tier has exactly one free translation. Or one word has exactly one gloss.

[a] A similar stereotype exists in Media Tagger, so it is especially useful for the import of such files.


The following example illustrates (four of) the different stereotypes (see also Figure 2.3, “Tier dependencies in the timeline viewer”):

Figure 2.4. Examples of (four of) the stereotypes

Examples of (four of) the stereotypes


You can define an unlimited number of tiers. It is useful to make decisions about the type of information that you want to enter (and consequently about the type of tiers that you need) at a relatively early stage in the annotation process. However, it is always possible at a later stage to change the parent of a dependent tier (see Changing the parent of a tier) or to copy a tier (Copying tiers) and to alter the copy.