Introduction

This documentation is minimally adapted from the original documentation by Alexis Dimitriadis. Dimitriadis begins by thanking Jeff Siskind for permission to distribute the QobiTree code, and asking for comments to be directed to Alexis Dimitriadis. This documentation is available as PostScript, DVI.

You can download qtree from "the usual places", or from http://www.ling.upenn.edu/advice/latex/qtree/

For more documentation (e.g. about getting arrows going across the tree to represent movement), see the files in: http://www.ling.upenn.edu/advice/latex/qtree/

Doug Arnold, 20 December, 2000

The qtree package consists of QobiTree, a package of tree-drawing macros written by Jeff Siskind, and a front end that allows trees to be specified in bracket notation, using whitespace to separate tokens. Tree nodes, which can have labels of any size of complexity, are automatically arranged on the page, usually with quite good results. Provisions exist for fine-tuning the default layout. The front end also centers trees (by default) and provides some other nice features.

A simple tree may look like this:

\Tree [.S a [.NP {\bf b} c ] d ]

Invocation

The tree macro file qtree.sty is designed to be installed in the normal directory of style files. It is loaded in the usual way by:

\usepackage{qtree}

The lines used to draw trees look better if this package is used with the styles epic.sty and eepic.sty. which provide enhancements to the LaTeX picture environment. This version of qtree will automatically include eepic.sty if it can find it, so if eepic.sty is in the style files directory, it should not be necessary to give "eepic" as a style argument. This document begins with the header:

The node labels may be quite complicated; they may contain font changes and math-mode text, line breaks introduced with \\ (which produce centered lines), etc. The trees produced have a maximum depth of 20, with a maximum of five branches at any one node. Unlike many other tree macros, QobiTree adjusts automatically for the width and height of tree labels, and is pretty good at arranging nodes on the page.

To make a multi-word node label, enclose it in braces; note also that TeX discards the spaces immediately after control sequences (commands whose name consists of a backslash followed by letters), hence if a node label ends with a control sequence, like \ldots in the following example, you need to enclose it in braces too.

\Tree [.CP [.{\sc Spec}(CP) {which car} ] {\ldots} ]

That's all you really need to get started! Read on for more features, examples and information about complicated uses.

Details and examples

\Tree [.S a [.NP b c ]    d ]
\Tree [.S a [    b c ].NP d ]

\Tree [.S a [.NP b c ].NP d ]

Numbered examples etc.

1. (a)

\begin{enumerate} \item (a) \hskip-0.75in
\begin{gif}{Tree3}
    \Tree[.C [.Tns [.Neg [.Ind V [.Ind Ind Agr_1 ]] Neg ].Neg 
      [.Tns Agr_2 Tns ] ].Tns [.C C Agr_3 ] ]
\end{gif}
\end{enumerate}

For obscure reasons, trees often appear farther to the right than is visually appealing; but not to worry, you can move them sideways by hand. (Note the \hskip in the last example, which moves the tree 0.75 inches to the left).

Roofs

To create a roof labeled NP over the phrase the book, type

        \qroof{the book}.NP

Subscripts and superscripts

\begin{enumerate}
\item \Tree [.IP [ Roses ].NP_i [.I\1 [ are ].I^0 
        [.VP t_i [ [ going ].V^0 \qroof{out of style}.PP ].V\1 ].VP 
          ].I\1 ]
\end{enumerate}

Left adjusted trees

Side by side trees

\begin{enumerate}
\qtreecenterfalse
\item (a) \hskip -0.3in
\Tree [.S [.NP \'el\\he ]
        [.VP [.V hizo\\made ] [.V decir\\say ] 
             [.NP lo\\it ] [.NP a-mi\\me ]      ].VP ]
  (b) \Tree[ A [.T {B\\ \em note} cc ].T D ].S
\end{enumerate}

Trivia note:

\begin{enumerate}
\item \parbox[t]{2.4in}{ (a)~\Tree 
   [.VP [.NP (mud) ] [.V\1 [.V (get) ] [.PP {(on wall)} ]]] }
\parbox[t]{2in}{ (b)~\Tree 
 [.VP [.NP (screen) ] \qroof{V\qquad AP\\ \hfil(clear)~}.V\1 ] }
\end{enumerate}

Escaping the parser

Fine tuning

The low-level interface

\begin{center}
\leaf{a}
\leaf{\bf b} \leaf{c} \branch{2}{NP}
\leaf{d}
\branch{3}{S}
\qobitree
\end{center}

Disclaimer:

I hope to completely fix the centering in the future, and I welcome any comments or reports of other problems or desirable features. But as usual, no guarantees, promises, etc. can be made about the present or future state of this package.

Here is a last demo, illustrating some possibilities. (This example, and parts of the above exposition, was adapted from the original documentation for QobiTree).

\def\CUP{{\bf cup}}
\def\Nspec{N$_{\mbox{\sc spec}}$}

\Tree [.{{\em The cup slid from John to Mary.}\\
       {GO(\CUP,  $[_{\rm Path}$ FROM({\bf John}), TO({\bf Mary})])}\\IP}
 [.\fbox{Fracture}
   [.{{\em The cup}\\\CUP\\NP}
     [ {{\em The}\\$\bot$\\\Nspec} {{\em cup}\\\CUP\\N} ].\fbox{Fracture}
   ]
   [.{{\em slid from John to Mary}\\
    {GO({\it x},  $[_{\rm Path}$ FROM({\bf John}), TO({\bf Mary})])}\\IP}
     [ $\vdots$ $\vdots$ !\faketreewidth{WWW} ].\fbox{Fracture}
   ]
 ].\fbox{Fracture} % repeated label
]