Treedown conventions for split constituents

[jonathanrobie]

One obstacle to using sentence order in all sentences is finding the right way to represent the result in Treedown. I would like to propose some Treedown conventions to make that possible. Here are some cases I have noticed so far, I am sure there are others that I have missed.

I think we need to handle at least two distinct kinds of discontinuity. Postpositive conjunctions, which are frequent, imply a discontinuity both of sequence and of hierarchy. Most other instances seem to involve discontinuity of sequence only. I suggest we use two different conventions to distinguish these cases.

Postpositives (discontinuity in both hierarchy and sequence)

In the current trees, postpositives are represented out of sequence, like this:

*δὲ 
  v ἦσαν 
  p δίκαιοι 
  s ἀμφότεροι 
  adv ἐναντίον τοῦ Θεοῦ, 
  adv
    v.part πορευόμενοι 
    adv ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ἐντολαῖς καὶ δικαιώμασιν τοῦ Κυρίου 
    adv ἄμεμπτοι.

I would like to change this using two equivalent conventions, one primarily intended for easier editing, the other for clearer display. When marking down postpositives by hand, a postpositive can be flagged by prepending ** to it, as in this example:

v ἦσαν 
** δὲ 
p δίκαιοι 
s ἀμφότεροι 
adv ἐναντίον τοῦ Θεοῦ, 
adv
  v.part πορευόμενοι 
  adv ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ἐντολαῖς καὶ δικαιώμασιν τοῦ Κυρίου 
  adv ἄμεμπτοι.

This is equivalent to the following display-oriented representation:

*
  v ἦσαν 
  * δὲ 
  p δίκαιοι 
  s ἀμφότεροι 
  adv ἐναντίον τοῦ Θεοῦ, 
  adv
    v.part πορευόμενοι 
    adv ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ἐντολαῖς καὶ δικαιώμασιν τοῦ Κυρίου 
    adv ἄμεμπτοι.

If the discontinuity splits a constituent, the label of the constituent is repeated:

s Αὐτὸς 
** δὲ 
s ὁ Ἰωάνης

Which is equivalent to:

*
   s Αὐτὸς 
   * δὲ 
   s ὁ Ἰωάνης

If two distinct constituents share a label, they are distinguished using numbers: s.1, s.2, etc.

Simple discontinuity (discontinuity of sequence only)

When discontinuity involves sequence only, as in split focus or some uses of enclitics, a * before the word or constituent is used.

o Ταύτην 
v* ἐποίησεν
o ἀρχὴν τῶν σημείων
s ὁ Ἰησοῦς
adv ἐν Κανὰ τῆς Γαλιλαίας

Εἰ 
  s υἱὸς 
  *vc εἶ 
  s τοῦ θεοῦ

[jonathanrobie]

Luke 1:10 illustrates a case not shown in the previous examples.

Here is the current representation, which does not maintain sentence order:

This involves two constituents, each interrupted by the other. Let's try this with the proposed notation:

καὶ 
   s  πᾶν τὸ πλῆθος 
   v* ἦν 
   s* τοῦ λαοῦ 
   v προσευχόμενον 
   adv ἔξω 
   adv τῇ ὥρᾳ τοῦ θυμιάματος.

I'm inclined to say that is clear enough, and simple enough given the complexity of the example.

[jonathanrobie]

I"m going forward with this approach. Leaving open because (1) we do not have separate documentation for Treedown yet, and (2) the treebanks do not currently display discontinuity this way.