Producing time-aligned interlinear texts: Towards a SayMore–FLEx–ELAN workflow

[Ryan Pennington]

Hello all,

I mentioned on this list awhile back that I was working on a paper which would outline a workflow for dealing with SayMore, FLEx, and ELAN together. I am now ready to share that document, so I have placed it on my Academia page at the following link: https://www.academia.edu/6474779/Producing_time-aligned_interlinear_texts_Towards_a_SayMore-FLEx-ELAN_workflow. Feel free to email me off-list if you’d just like me to send you a copy instead. I am more than happy to receive any criticisms or editorial comments. This is a work in progress. I would also love to know of any outlets for this paper that you can think of, so that others can benefit. I will post this on the FLEx list. I will also see about getting it on LingTranSoft and ELAN’s third party tools page. If you’d like to tackle more serious editing, then I am also happy to send you the Word file. The abstract is below so you can get a better idea of what this paper is about.

Thanks,

Ryan Pennington

Abstract:

This document illustrates a workflow for the creation and organization of time-aligned annotations by utilizing the advantages of three software programs—SayMore, FLEx, and ELAN. Texts are segmented, transcribed, and translated using SayMore. After this basic annotation, the file is pulled into FLEx to allow for the incorporation of data from a FLEx-based lexicon. Next, the file is exported back into the SayMore file structure and then opened in ELAN for final processing. This final time-aligned interlinear text remains in SayMore for depositing alongside the entire corpus in a repository or archive. Since SayMore is not equipped to handle multiple speakers, however, many recorded texts will require a greater reliance on ELAN. Therefore, instructions for an ELAN-first methodology are provided as well.