Controlled Vocabularies

The creation of a CV

When you frequently use a certain linguistic type with a limited number of annotation values, it might be a good idea to associate a Controlled Vocabulary (CV) with it. Such a CV consists of a number of predefined values that a user can choose from when editing an annotation, thus making the task of the annotator less error-prone. E.g. one can choose to create a controlled vocabulary for part of speech tagging, as the tags that are used often reoccur. In order to do this select Edit > Edit Controlled Vocabularies. The following dialog will appear:

Figure 5.30. Edit controlled vocabulary

Edit controlled vocabulary

  1. The CV being edited
  2. Import option to retrieve a CV from a template
  3. Option to link to an External CV
  4. Annotation value as it is going to be filled in
  5. A loose description of the value
  6. Association with a ISO Data Category
  7. Buttons to move the selected entry in the list (respectively to the top, one place up, one place down and to the bottom).
  8. Undo/redo changes to the CV
  9. Buttons to sort the entries in the list


To create a new CV, do the following:

  1. Enter a CV Name and a description
  2. Click on the Add button
  3. Now enter each CV entry and its description.
  4. Confirm every entry addition by clicking on the Add button or by hitting Enter

Note

The undo function in the CV dialog window only works as long as that window is active. Once it is closed changes cannot be undone any more.

By clicking More Options... (not yet shown in the figure above) you can choose a color that will fill the lower part of every annotation frame containing the selected CV entry. Moreover, you can choose a shortcut key to edit an annotation with a single key stroke.

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.

Associating a CV entry with a Data Category

In ELAN it is possible to associate an entry of a controlled vocabulary with a data category of the ISO Data Category Repository (DCR). To do so click on Edit in the ELAN main menu and select Edit Controlled Vocabularies.... In the window that now appears, click the Browse... button to the right of the ISO Data Category option. In the next window (Figure 5.31, “Local Data Category Selection”), first select a profile in the left panel and then select a data category in the middle panel. Finally click on Apply to associate the selected data category to the CV entry.

Figure 5.31. Local Data Category Selection

Local Data Category Selection


More information about the ISO DCR and how to use it can be found in Data categories.

Importing an existing CV

Instead of creating a Controlled Vocabulary again every time ELAN also supports the possibility to reuse existing CV's. A first way to achieve this is to use a template file that contains a CV when creating a new *.eaf file. (See Creating a new document) Alternatively you can import a CV for already existing files:

  1. select Edit > Edit Controlled Vocabularies
  2. Click on Import CV
  3. Select the template from which you want to import a CV
  4. Choose Open
  5. Now all CV's that are stored in the selected template file will be imported

If you try to import a CV with the same name as an already existing CV a dialog will pop up asking what to do:

Figure 5.32. Controlled vocabulary already exists warning

Controlled vocabulary already exists warning


  • Skip CV: ignore the CV from the template
  • Replace Existing CV: overwrite the existing CV with that from the template
  • Rename CV: opens a dialog asking you to give a new name for the imported CV
  • Merge CV's: entries from the imported CV that are not in an existing CV are imported.

Using an External CV

A created or imported controlled vocabulary is part of the current transcription and is therefore part of the .eaf file when the transcription is saved. However, there are situations in which a controlled vocabulary is shared between two or more transcriptions and change to that CV should be propagated to all transcription that use that CV. For this purpose, ELAN enables you to link to a controlled vocabulary that is either on your local or attached hard disk or somewhere on the network or the Internet:

  1. select Edit > Edit Controlled Vocabularies
  2. click External CV
  3. Do one of the following:
    • click on Browse... and browse to and select the file containing the External CV
    • enter a URL that point to an External CV somewhere on the Internet
  4. Click OK to make the link

Similar to the Import CV process, if you try to import a CV with the same name as an already existing CV a dialog will pop up asking what to do (see Figure 5.32, “Controlled vocabulary already exists warning”).

The entries of an External CV cannot be edited nor their ISO Data Category. Also the order of the entries cannot be change. The possibility to add a color and shortcut key to an entry via the More Options... button is still there.

Exporting a CV

A CV can be exported by saving the current file as a template. (See Saving a selection as .eaf file)

Using CV's

When editing an annotation that belongs to a linguistic type associated with a CV, a drop down box appears, the suggest panel. Just select the value to be filled in:

Figure 5.33. Controlled vocabulary drop down box

Controlled vocabulary drop down box


Note

  • It is possible to by-pass the controlled vocabulary constraints by holding shift and double clicking on the active annotation (right clicking and selecting “Modify annotation value” while holding shift does the same).
  • If a CV entry is associated with a data category of the ISO DCR (see Associating a CV entry with a Data Category), the annotation is also associated with that data category.

More information about entering annotations from a CV and working with the Suggest Panel, see section 5.8.3.

Associating a linguistic type with Controlled Vocabularies

Open the Change the Linguistic type dialog (via Type > Change linguistic type) and make a choice from the Use Controlled Vocabulary dropdown box:

Figure 5.34. Change linguistic type

Change linguistic type