rsyntaxtree

RSyntaxTree is a graphical syntax tree generator for linguistic research

Documentation

Documentation is currently available in the following languages:

• Documentation in English

• 日本語ドキュメント

• Example Gallery

Web Interface

See updates and a working web interface available at https://yohasebe.com/rsyntaxtree.

You can run RSyntaxTree's web interface on your local machine using Docker Desktop. See RSyntaxTree Web UI

Examples

See RSyntaxTree Example Gallery page for examples for

• Generative Grammar
• Combinatory Categorial Grammar
• Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar
• Cognitive Grammar
• Construction Grammar
• Pragmatics
• Phonology
• etc.

NOTE: Some tree structures in the example gallery are experimental in the sense that they are not drawn according to conventions of the field.

Input text

[S
  [NP |R|<>SyntaxTree]
  [VP
    [V generates]
    [NP
      [Adj #\+multilingual\
            \+beautiful]
      [NP syntax\
          trees]
    ]
  ]
]

Output (PNG or SVG)

Installation

gem install rsyntaxtree

macOS Installation Notice

Important for macOS users: If you are installing the RSyntaxTree gem directly on macOS, you might encounter build errors for some native extensions (specifically for gobject-introspection, cairo-gobject, and gio2). These errors occur due to macOS linker requirements for dynamic symbol resolution. To work around this issue, please run the following commands in your terminal before installing RSyntaxTree:

gem install gobject-introspection -- --with-ldflags="-Wl,-undefined,dynamic_lookup"
gem install cairo-gobject -- --with-ldflags="-Wl,-undefined,dynamic_lookup"
gem install gio2 -- --with-ldflags="-Wl,-undefined,dynamic_lookup"

After executing these commands, you can install RSyntaxTree normally:

gem install rsyntaxtree

Alternatively, if you prefer a smoother installation process, consider using the Docker image or the web interface.

Usage

For the web interface, see Usage section of https://yohasebe.com/rsyntaxtree.

For the command-line interface, type $rsyntaxtree -h after installation. Here's what you get:

RSyntaxTree, (linguistic) syntax tree generator written in Ruby.

Usage:
       1) rsyntaxtree [options] "[VP [VP [V set] [NP bracket notation]] [ADV here]]"
       2) rsyntaxtree [options] "/path/to/text/file"
where [options] are:
  -o, --outdir=<s>                     Output directory (default: ./)
  -u, --outfilename=<s>                Output file base name (default: syntree)
  -f, --format=<s>                     Output format: png, gif, jpg, pdf, or svg (default: png)
  -l, --leafstyle=<s>                  visual style of tree leaves: auto, triangle, bar, or nothing (default: auto)
  -n, --fontstyle=<s>                  Font style (available when ttf font is specified): sans, serif, cjk, mono (default: sans)
  -t, --font=<s>                       Path to a ttf font used to generate tree (optional)
  -s, --fontsize=<i>                   Size: 8-26 (default: 16)
  -i, --linewidth=<i>                  Size: 1-5 (default: 1)
  -v, --vheight=<f>                    Connector Height: 0.5-5.0 (default: 2.0)
  -c, --color=<s>                      Color text and bars: modern, traditional, or off (default: modern)
  -y, --symmetrize=<s>                 Generate radically symmetrical, balanced tree: on or off (default: off)
  -r, --transparent=<s>                Make background transparent: on or off (default: off)
  -p, --polyline=<s>                   draw polyline connectors: on or off (default: off)
  -d, --hide-default-connectors=<s>    make default connectors transparent: on or off (default: off)
  -h, --help                           This is a custom help message
  -e, --version                        Print version and exit

See the documentation for more detailed info about the syntax.

References

Please use the following BibTeX entry when referring to RSyntaxTree.

@misc{rsyntaxtree_2024,
  author = {Yoichiro Hasebe},
  title = {RSyntaxTree: A graphical syntax tree image generator}
  url = {https://yohasebe.com/rsyntaxtree},
  year = {2024}
}

Development

For the latest updates and downloads please visit http://github.com/yohasebe/rsyntaxtree

Author

Yoichiro Hasebe [e-mail]

License

RSyntaxTree is distributed under the MIT License.