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When studying an agglutinative language, one sometimes encounters the following type of helpful diagram, which labels a sentence according to the grammatical function of each constitutive element.

Here is a (poorly designed) mock-up of the kind of diagram I am referring to: Mock-up diagram

Does this type of diagram have a name? If so, what is it called?

I would like to find a program (or LaTeX package) that can be used to quickly create these diagrams, but I am not sure what to be searching for!

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  • I'm not aware of any particular designation for such diagrams. Perhaps you will need to come with your own. I agree that they are helpful for illustrating the syntax and morphosyntax of such languages.
    – Tim Osborne
    Commented Feb 25, 2015 at 2:27
  • Isn't this really the same as an interlinear gloss, just that in the latter the items are vertically aligned rather than having lines connecting?
    – Gaston Ümlaut
    Commented Feb 25, 2015 at 3:21
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    For interlinear glossing in LaTeX, there is gb4e/cgloss, linguex, and expex. See also this question on TeX.SX.
    – Adam Liter
    Commented Feb 25, 2015 at 3:39
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    If I were to guess at a term or have to coin one myself I would pick something like "template diagram" or "agglutination diagram". Agglutinating languages generally fit certain pieces together in certain fixed orders, the pattern in linguistics is often called a "template" and the places where morphemes fit into the template are usually called "slots".
    – hippietrail
    Commented Feb 25, 2015 at 3:39
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    You won't find anything in those packages that does anything like the picture in your question here. Those packages were designed for interlinear glossing. If you really want a diagram like the one you have, then the easiest/best way is probably to use TikZ. Though not exactly the same thing, my answer to this question might be a useful place to start if you do want a diagram like the one depicted in your question.
    – Adam Liter
    Commented Feb 25, 2015 at 4:52

1 Answer 1

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I agree with users Gaston Ümlaut, Adam Liter; the closest thing to this is, I think, a gloss.

I use expex.

Example:

\usepackage{expex}

\pex                                   %itemizes this paragraph (until \xe) as (1), (2) ...
\begingl                               % begin gloss
\gla Fliegen fliegen Fliegen nach //   % end all three lines with a double forward slash
\glb flies fly flies after //          % this line aligns with gla
\glft "Flies fly after flies" //       % this one doesn't
\endgl
\xe
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