Here is a step by step procedure for
generating a FLEx file from an ELAN file, and then generating an ELAN file from
the FLEx file.
ELAN is a useful program for doing
transcription. You can play a segment of a sound file over and over in order to
transcribe it (like in Praat). In addition, that sound file is accompanied by a
video file (unlike in Praat). However, for glossing, you want to use FLEx,
which is directly connected to your dictionary (and so makes glossing easier).
Once you do the glossing in FLEx, you
might want to display the glosses with the original transcription back in ELAN (along
with any other minor changes you have made to the transcription and
translations while working in FLEx).
Warning: The ELAN-->FLEx-->ELAN process is very sensitive to the characters used in the transcription line of the original ELAN file. If you have * or any kind of punctuation, lines might be missing from the resulting ELAN file. Furthermore, some changes to the baseline in FLEx cause similar problems in the output ELAN file (e.g., breaking up or combining lines in the baseline of FLEx).
ELAN to FLEx
It took me 16 iterations and roughly
a whole morning to figure out the following procedure, since the instructions
that ELAN gives are not obvious. Nor are the answers to your questions to be
found in the ELAN help files or manuals.
In my set-up in ELAN, there is one
participant. For that participant, there is a transcription tier for Sasi, and
two translation tiers: one for Setswana and one for English. Other set-ups will
not work exactly as below. Consult the following helpful link for further
information:
1.
Open your ELAN file.
Comment: In my case, the ELAN file
is called K_Bojalwa.eaf. K is the first initial of the name of the speaker, and
Bojalwa means traditional beer in
Setswana. The extension .eaf is for ELAN files. In this short video, K
describes how to make bojalwa in the language Sasi.
In my ELAN file, I have one tier for
transcription and two tiers for translation. I do not attempt to do the glossing
in ELAN, since there is no support for glossing there (there is no built in
dictionary, etc.). I named these tiers as follows:
Sasi [Note: This tier has no
parent.]
Setswana [Note: Parent tier is Sasi.]
English [Note: Parent tier is Sasi.]
2.
In ELAN, select: “File > Export
As > FLEx File”
This will bring up a dialogue box
called “Export as FLEx File”. This box has a sequence of four windows (I will
call them 1/4, 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4). I will discuss what you need to do at each of
the four windows below.
3.
Step 1/4: Element Mapping
Just select “Next” here (don’t
change anything)
4.
Step 2/4: Element-Item Configuration
Just select “Next” here (don’t
change anything)
5.
Step 3/4: Element-Item ‘type’ and
‘language’ attribute configuration
You should be presented three tiers (in
my case, Sasi, Setswana and English) that you need to set ‘type’ and ‘language’
values for.
Comment: This is the most important
window. These values need to be exactly right in order to guarantee that the
output from ELAN works in FLEx. In other words, the values for the ‘type’ and
‘language’ attributes are FLEx values that you are entering into ELAN so ELAN
knows how to produce the correct output file (with extension .flextext) that
can be used by FLEx.
6.
First set the types of the three
tiers in window 3/4.
The type of the transcription tier
should be txt (this should already be set for you). The types of the two
translation tiers should be gls. For the types of the translation tiers, you
select from a pull-down menu.
Comment: The types for the translation
tiers seem counter-intuitive to me (since they are translations and not
glosses), but other choices did not work.
7.
Next, set the languages of the three
tiers.
Since the process is not immediately
obvious, I will describe each of the tiers separately.
8.
The language of the transcription
tier needs to match the vernacular language name in FLEx. If it does not match
exactly, it will not work.
The FLEx internal language codes are
not part of ELAN. So the language name will not show up in the pull-down menu
in window 3/4. You need to go to the bottom of window 3/4, click “language”
after “Add/remove values for”. In the field “Add custom value”, add the name
for your transcription language (as given by FLEx).
To get the exact FLEx name, open FLEx
(and the particular FLEx project you are working on) and select “Format >
Set up writing system”. In my case the name FLEx internal name of Sasi is:
huc-Latn-BW. This is a name that FLEx itself generated when I set up my
project.
Once you have added the FLEx
internal name for your transcription language to ELAN, you click “select a
language” for the transcription tier and select the language name from the pull-down
menu.
9.
The language names of the translation
tiers need to match the internal FLEx names. Once again, go to “Format > Set
up writing system” in FLEx to find those names. In my case, the internal FLEx
name for Setswana is tn-Latn-BW. Once again, you need to go to the bottom of
window 3/4 and click “language”. In the field “Add custom value”, you type in
the language name.
The language of the English
translation tier is en. This language name also needs to be added at the bottom
of window 3/4.
10.
Once you have set the types and the
languages of the three tiers, it should look something like this (It will look
different for your project, since the names of the tiers in your ELAN project
will be different, and the languages you use will be different too.):
Sasi txt huc-Latn-BW
Setswana gls tn-Latn-BW
English gls en
11.
You are now done with window 3/4, so
click Next.
12.
Step 4/4: Save as
Save the file in a convenient location.
You will be prompted to add the extension .flextext to the file. In my case,
the resulting file name is: K_Bojalwa.flextext.
13.
Open FLEx by clicking on the FLEx
icon on your desktop.
14.
In FLEx, click: “Open a project”
And then open the project you want to
upload the text to. In my case, the project name is “Sasi”.
15.
In FLEx, click on “Texts and Words”
in the lower left-hand corner.
16.
Click on “File > Import >
FLExText Interlinear”
17.
Browse to find the file you saved,
and press OK.
18.
Go to “Title” in the “Text” window,
and enter the name of the text, in my case K_Bojalwa.
19.
The transcription tier from ELAN
should come up as the baseline in FLEx.
20.
Go to “Tools > Configure >
Interlinear” and make sure that “Free Translation English” and “Free Translation
Setswana” appear in the right-hand window. You can also use this opportunity to
make sure the FLEx lines that you want are showing (I chose Word, Morphemes,
Lex. Entries and Lex. Gloss).
21.
Click on Analyse.
In this window, you should be able
to now complete the glossing of your text. You should also see translations for
English (Free en) and Setswana (Free Set) under the glosses.
FLEx to ELAN
FLEx to ELAN is much simpler than
ELAN to FLEx.
1.
In FLEx, go to “Text and Words” and
choose your text. Select “File > Export interlinear > ELAN, SayMore, FLEx”.
Click “Export”.
2.
Save the file to the same folder as
the .wav file.
3.
Open ELAN, and select “File > Import
> FLEx File”
4.
Browse and select .flextext file you
created.
Browse and select the original .wav
file
(that is, the .wav file that was
used to create the original ELAN file).
5.
In the Import FLEx window:
Click on: Include "interlinear-text" element.
Choose "phrase" not "word" for the "Smallest time-alignable element".
If you chose "word" (and not "phrase") the word tier will be divided according to time subdivision (instead of symbolic subdivision), and this will make it so that your file is slow to load and also slow to scroll through.
Click on: Create for all basic elements
Type in any number for the window “Duration
per phrase element(ms)” (e.g., 2).
6.
Your ELAN display will have a large
number of tiers, many which you may not want to display. Just right click on one of the tier names,
and select “Show/hide more”. Then you can select the tiers you want to display.
7.
Now you should have two ELAN .eaf
files for the same oral text. In my case, they are called K_bojalwa.eaf and
K_bojalwa_2.eaf. The difference between them are as follows:
a.
K_bojalwa.eaf: The original ELAN
file. There are three tiers: a transcription tier and two translation tiers. In
my case, the names of the tiers are Sasi, Setswana and English.
b.
K_bojalwa.eaf: The ELAN file that is
the result of ELAN à FLEx à ELAN. There
are four (or more) tiers, in my case: a transcription tier, a glossing tier and
two translation tiers. The names of the tiers are completely changed. They now
incorporate FLEx internal codes that ELAN uses to name the tiers.
I recommend that you keep both ELAN
files, as they present the information in different ways and may be useful for
different purposes.
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