Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!texsun!smunews!txsil!steve
From: steve@txsil.lonestar.org (Steve McConnel)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: Glossed examples in TeX
Message-ID: <373@txsil.lonestar.org>
Date: 3 Nov 90 20:44:36 GMT
References: <43647@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU>
Reply-To: steve@txsil.lonestar.org (Steve McConnel)
Organization: Summer Institute of Linguistics, Dallas TX
Lines: 105

In article <43647@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> malouf@acsu.buffalo.edu
 (Robert Malouf) writes:
>Does anyone know of a macro for formatting glossed examples in TeX?  I want to
>include examples like (1) or (2) in a paper.
>
>(1) Mosimane o-   bed- its-w-   e    ke monna.
>    boy      SUBJ-beat-PRV-PASS-MOOD by man
>    `The/*a boy was beaten by a/the man.'
>
>(2) Mosimane o-bed-its-w-e           ke monna.
>    boy      SUBJ-beat-PRV-PASS-MOOD by man
>    `The/*a boy was beaten by a/the man.'
>
>Thanks in advance for any advice.


We've been working on TeX macros for typesetting interlinear text for
a couple of years, and are almost ready to publish a book describing
how to use them.  (``Almost ready'' as in ``goes to press next week''.)
I'll try to make the macros and programs available on the net sometime
in December when the books are available.  Before that, "beta-test"
versions are available on request.

The primary focus of our work has been on a set of macros for plain
TeX to format books of annotated text, but a LaTeX style has also been
developed.  An environment named `interlinear' is the focal point of
the LaTeX macros.  This environment creates a box containing aligned
text.  (Because it's all in a box, each interlinear example must fit on
a page, and examples will never split across pages.)  If the examples
are short enough to fit on one line, it is possible to include the
freeform annotation in the interlinear environment.  Before using the
interlinear environment, each annotation field must be defined by an
\aligning command to establish font selection, leading, and so on.
For the examples given by Robert Malouf, the following commands would
set things up appropriately:

    \aligning{text}{cmr10}{}{}{}{}
    \aligning{gloss}{cmr10}{}{}{}{}
    \aligning{free}{cmr10}{}{}{}{}

(Optional parameters are perhaps not handled in true LaTeX style, as the
macro definition was copied verbatim from the plain TeX package.)

Within the interlinear environment, \[ and \] delimit a \vbox containing
stacked annotations.  \< and \> delimit a \hbox, allowing nesting, for
example, to align morphemes rather than words.  \+ causes the nested
\vbox's to butt up against each other rather than being separated by a
modest amount of space.  { and } at the innermost level delimit the
actual data, handling the setup (font switches and such) established
by \aligning commands earlier.

With that background, here's the encoding of Robert Malouf's first example:

    \begin{interlinear}
    \[ \< \[       {Mosimane} {boy}          \]
          \[ \< \[ {o--}      {SUBJ--} \]\+
                \[ {bed}      {beat}   \]\+
                \[ {--its}    {--PRV}  \]\+
                \[ {--w}      {--PASS} \]\+
                \[ {--e}      {--MOOD} \] \> \]
          \[       {ke}       {by}           \]
          \[       {monna.}   {man}          \] \>
                   {`The/*a boy was beaten by a/the man.'} \]
    \end{interlinear}

Of course, if you want to use word-aligned examples, that's also possible.
Here is how it would be encoded:

    \begin{interlinear}
    \[ \< \[ {Mosimane}          {boy}                         \]
          \[ {o--bed--its--w--e} {SUBJ--beat--PRV--PASS--MOOD} \]
          \[ {ke}                {by}                          \]
          \[ {monna.}            {man}                         \] \>
             {`The/*a boy was beaten by a/the man.'}                 \]
    \end{interlinear}

Note that the whitespace in these examples is purely to make the nesting
and alignment easier to decipher.  Within the interlinear environment,
newlines are given the same \catcode as spaces, so that empty lines will
not trigger paragraphing.  Also, within a \[...\] pair, spaces are thrown
away except for the actual data inside the {...} pairs.

In addition to the commands described above, there are parameters for
adjusting margins and spacing, and a couple of commands for accessing
multiple fonts within a single annotation field.  An `interlinear*'
environment is also provided for unnumbered examples.  For those who
are working with multiple languages, the \itfreset command erases the
information stored by prior \aligning commands.

The TeX macros and associated software will be free, but we'll have to
charge for the book and floppies. :-( (but probably less than $20) :-)
Since we aren't on the Internet, I can't put things up on `anonymous
FTP' directly.  Posting to USENET is the obvious alternative.

What newsgroup would it be appropriate to post the TeX macros to?
Currently, ITF.TEX (the plain TeX macro file) is 79K, ITFL.STY (the
LaTeX style file) is 15K, and a pair of auxiliary TeX/LaTeX macro
files add another 10K to the total.  Then, adding the C source code
to a couple of programs for translating data into ITF/TeX format...
It adds up to a fair amount of data.
-- 
Stephen McConnel
Summer Institute of Linguistics  PHONE: 214-709-2418
7500 W. Camp Wisdom Road          UUCP: ...!{convex|utafll}!txsil!steve
Dallas, TX 75236              Internet: steve@txsil.lonestar.org