Nesting Discourse Units

By Miller Prosser, January 2018

This article assumes a basic knowledge of the OCHRE data model, especially regarding texts.

Why Nest Discourse Units?

For most texts, a single discourse unit represents one word. There will be times when you wish to group words together into chapters, verses, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, etc. This allows you to add properties to the group of words to define what these groups represent. In some cases, this grouping can be used to perform grammatical analysis. In other cases, a group of discourse uses may identify an element of a text, such as the body of a letter. Some projects use grouping to identify elements of legal and economic transactions, e.g. a witness list.

Translating Discourse Groups

It is convenient to combine words into groups, then to add a translation to the parent discourse unit.

How to Nest Words into Groups

  • Navigate to the text in the left navigation pane.

  • Expand the Discourse Hierarchy to reveal the words you wish to nest together.

  • Select the range of words to be added to the group.

  • Click the golden wand to create the group. (The wand is located along the left of the edit pane, just to the right of the navigation pane.)

Nesting Discourse Units

In the pop-up, assign a discourse unit Type and add any properties you need. (See the figure below. You can create the list of predefinitions that appear in the pick list.)

  • The types behave slightly differently regarding how they appear in a View.

  • If the nested discourse unit represents a compound proper name, then the Type should be set to Word.

How to Configure the List of Predefinitions

A Project Admin must configure the project to define which hierarchy of predefinitions appears in the pick list in the nesting wizard. In the Project Preferences, go to Tools > Wizards. Add a hierarchy from the Predefinitions category to the field called "Predefinition hierarchy for Nesting tool."

Configure the Project

Any predefinitions that appear in this hierarchy will also appear in the nesting wizard.

Nesting Pop Up

You have two pick lists to use at this stage. First, you can assign the Type to the discourse unit (e.g. Phrase or Verse). Second, you can use a Predefinition to add properties to the new group.

On Selecting Discourse Units to Nest

  • All selected discourse units must share a common parent.

    • This means that you cannot select a word or phrase at a higher level and some words or phrases at a lower level.

  • You can further nest a group of words in another group.

    • However, to add Group A into a new Group B, Group A cannot be expanded in the navigation pane.

LIKE THIS:

Nest a Group in a New Group

NOT LIKE THIS:

This Will Not Work

DO NOT SELECT DISCOURSE UNITS THAT HAVE DIFFERENT PARENTS:

NO! These Discourse Units Do Not Share the Same Parent

How to Remove Discourse Units from a Group

If you change your mind or need to remove discourse units from a group for any reason, you have two options. First, you can simply select the range of discourse units, then drag them to the desired location, perhaps a different group. But if you simply want to move words from a group up one level, essentially returning them to where they were when you started, you can select the range of words and use the Left Nudge arrow. This latter method will return the words to their previous place in the order. Dragging the words to the highest level discourse unit will put the words at the end of the list!

Nudge Left, i.e. Promote Item to a Higher Level in the Hierarchy