Comments on: LaTeX package for OT tableaux

By: Nathan Sanders

Nathan Sanders — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 04:16:48 +0000

For those who are interested, I posted v0.3.1 recently. This is a pretty stable and robust release that should do pretty much anything you’d need for typical tableaux. There should also be no more package conflicts or major bugs remaining, so future releases will likely focus primarily on any new features that you, the users, request.

By: Nathan Sanders

Nathan Sanders — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 20:36:50 +0000

In answer to Maria's question about automated calculations of tableau properties, all I can say is that some phonologists are better than others. ;)

OTtablx v0.2 is now available, which has many new features, including comparative tableaux, as requested by Michael.

Thanks for the mention of the competition, Eric. It gives me an opportunity to point out that, as far as I know, all three of the competitors make use of the basic LaTeX tabular environment, which doesn't quite match up to the fancier look capable in Word. OTtablx is my attempt to simulate the look of Word's tableaux in LaTeX. To my knowledge, the competitors don't do anything to change the look of tableux, they just make it easier to input them into the same basic format.

Hope this helps clears things up!

By: Maria

Maria — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 18:12:44 +0000

All good points. LyX will not make you happy if you like to write in straight TeX or LaTeX, nor was it designed with such users in mind. LyX also does not offer anything extra except for the WYSIWYG experience; the packages you use are the same ones as in straight LaTeX. Something like Nathan’s package would probably not be useful in LyX, since it defeats the purpose of WYSIWYG to format tableaux in a separate, non-graphic environment. Though you presumably could use it in LyX if you wanted to.

There is something I do not understand about OTableau et al. What is the purpose of a utility that figures out shading and where to place stars in a tableau? Hasn’t the phonologist already worked out which rankings are crucial in the analysis?

By: Michael Becker

Michael Becker — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 17:56:44 +0000

Thanks for the reminder, Eric. I think it’s important to note that to my knowledge, Nathan’s is currently the only LaTaX package for producing OT tableaux. Using a specialized package has the major benefit of being intergrated into one’s LaTeX code.

The Lyx tutorial is great for those who use Lyx, not for those who like their LaTeX raw. Eychenne’s OTableau and Eisner’s Shade are great utilities that deserve to be reviewed in full; I just want to note that they are not LaTeX packages.

By: Eric Bakovic

Eric Bakovic — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 15:17:35 +0000

Don't forget the competition -- indeed, it'd be nice if someone (other than the creators, of course) tried each of the four available packages and posted a little review of them here ...

By: Michael Becker

Michael Becker — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 03:32:11 +0000

I haven’t tried the package yet, but the documentation looks exciting. Tableaux with rounded corners are really pretty.

I would love to see a version of this package that supports comparative tableaux that are annotated with violation marks. You can see what I mean in Alan Prince’s “Arguing Optimality” (ROA-562), pages 29 and 30. Putting the W or L in the center and the subscripted violation count on the left without a special package is a pain.