Your structure file, also referred to as the .typ file here, consists of a list of markers with their definitions. These definitions include the information about the relation between the markers. In fact, this is the most important part of this file for the purpose of importing your lexicon into LEXUS. In Figure 1.1, you can see an example of a typical structure file viewed in a text editor

Figure 1.1. An example of a structure file

As you can see, the structure file is divided into small sections, each defining a separate marker. The markers are listed alphabetically. The first line of each of these sections identifies the marker, for instance the phrase: \+mkr ps identifies the marker ps, that is part of speech. The next line gives the full name of the marker: \nam Part of speech and yet the next one gives its description: \desc Classifies the part of speech...and the language in which the values appear: \lng English. Most of this information will be copied to LEXUS and therefore should be complete and correct. The \rngset line in the definition defines the possible values that this marker can have (this applies only to markers that have such closed sets of values): \rngset -n ??? adj adv conj dem... The few lines that are eclosed by: \+font and \-font contain the information about the font: type, size, color etc.

The most important part of the marker definition for the purpose of importing data into LEXUS is the line \+mkrOverThis which specifies which marker is above the currently discussed one in the hierarchical structure. In this case the marker that is directly above ps is lx, that is lexeme. Therefore we know that the hierarchical order of these two is such that lx is directly above ps. In the same manner all other markers are defined in the structure file, so that they all form one hierarchy. This hierarchy can be found not only in the structure file, but also in the Toolbox project itself. If you open your Toolbox project, which runs on your structure file, and go to View and from this menu choose Markers and Marker Hierarchy then in the left part of your workspace all the markers for the particular entry you are looking at will be listed and their hierarchy will be visualized by the ‘stair-like’structure (See Figure 1.2):

Figure 1.2. Structure file in Toolbox

Here again you can see that ps, part of speech is found under lx, lexeme. We can also notice that it is not only the marker ps, but also va that has been defined under lx. This visualization of the hierarchy however is not completely clear as what we see is not the entire hierarchy that is in the structure file, but only the markers used in the particular entry. Thus, we can see that the marker ge is lower in the hierarchy than ps or va - this is apparent from the number of dots before it, as one dot separates nodes that are on different levels in the structure. But we do not know what is the precise hierarchy. In fact it could be the case that ge is linked under ps or va but not directly (the number of dots shows that there is another level between them) or it could be linked indirectly under something else than ps or va. Similarly, we are not sure which marker is above ve: ps, va or something else that did not appear in this entry. This is because of the way Toolbox works: it shows here only the markers that have been inserted by you in this particular entry and not the underlying hierarchical structure of the whole lexicon.

Only by looking at Figure 1.2 we cannot decide what the hierarchy really is. One way to check it is of course to look again into the structure file, find the part that defines the relevant markers and see what is written there in the line: \+mkrOverThis.

We can however find this information in Toolbox too without opening the structure file. We just have to right-click on the maker itself in the hierarchy and a window will pop up with all the information about it:

Figure 1.3. Marker information in Toolbox

Here we can see that ge is actually specified under pos, position in the hierarchy. This pop-up window is actually a very important one as it contains a lot of the important information: the marker, its field name, its place in the hierarchy, language encoding and definition. All these elements can be modified here. As for changing the place of a marker in the hierarchy, you simply have to click on the roll-out menu next to Under what in the Hierarchy and choose the marker you want from the list:

Figure 1.4. Redefining the position of a marker in the structure in Toolbox

This change will be automatically saved in your structure file. It is also possible to rearrange the marker hierarchy in the structure file itself. You simply have to substitute the marker that stands in the field: \mkrOverThis with another one. Compare the two screenshots in Figure 1.5:

Figure 1.5. Example: Redefining the position of the marker 'a' (alternative form) in the structure file itself. Before: defined under 'sf'. After: defined under 'lx'

Remember, however, to save your changes in the structure file – when doing this operation through Toolbox, the changes are saved automatically, but if you work with the structure file itself, you have to save the changes each time yourself. The last important option in Toolbox is the possibility to view a list of all the markers that you are using. To do that click on the Database button in the main menu and choose Properties from the roll-out menu. A window will pop-up with all the markers, See Figure 1.6:

Figure 1.6. List of markers in Toolbox

Here you can see all the markers together with the information about their place in the hierarchy. This window also shows which markers area actually in use, that is, have at least one value specified somewhere in the lexicon. Those that do not fulfill this criterion will be written here in a light font, and not in bold as the rest. Such markers can then be deleted by clicking on them and choosing the option [Delete] from the right panel.