How to get a first unglossed line with linguex

Question

I'm stumped with how I might use linguex to get an unglossed first line, then give a second line with morpheme breakdowns, the morpheme-by-morpheme gloss on the third line, and the free translation on the fourth line. This would be helpful for languages in which the morphophonology obscures the morphemes themselves. Anyone already done this?

Answer 1

The answer depends on what you want to achieve. I can interpret your question in two ways: either the top three lines are all aligned word-by-word (what I'll call the 1-3 option), or only lines 2 and 3 are aligned word-by-word and lines 1 and 4 have normal spacing (what I'll call the 2-3 option). The IJAL style guide recommends 4-line interlinear glossing, and its examples use the 2-3 option, but in many places I have seen the 1-3 option.

2-3 Option with linguex or gb4e

If you want the 2-3 option, you can achieve this in linguex if you use the \gll/\glt syntax for interlinear glossing. You just put the top line between the command that introduces the example and the \gll, as shown below. You would do the same if you are using gb4e, which uses the same underlying glossing package as linguex.

These are the examples from the IJAL style guide. This code needs to be compiled with xelatex or lualatex because I've used Unicode phonetic symbols and loaded Charis SIL with fontspec.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{Charis SIL}
\usepackage{linguex}
\begin{document}
\ex. Top line not aligned word-by-word
    \a. katamaːwḛ́ːʍ nakištḭkatká̰n
        \gll ka-tamáː-ʔḛː-w nak=kin-štḭkát-ka̰n \
            \textsc{opt}-lie.down-\textsc{deb}-\textsc{1pl.sub} \textsc{loc}=1\textsc{po}-sleeping.mat-\textsc{pl.po} \
        \glt Let’s lie down on our sleeping mats!' \b. a:'jtzananú: chiwíx xli:lh’a:'nankán \gll a̰ːxtsananúː čiwíš ḭš-liː-ɬ’a̰ː-nan-kan \\ long.ago rock \textsc{past}-\textsc{inst}-plow-\textsc{dtrns}-\textsc{idf} \\ \gltLong ago they plowed with rocks.'
\end{document}

Note that you cannot get this extra line if you use the \exg./\ag./\bg./etc. syntax provided by linguex because those commands align the first two lines they encounter (they are like \gll in that sense).

1-3 and 2-3 Options with expex

As far as I know, the only package that allows more than 2 aligned lines is expex; see How to format an arbitrary number of lines in interlinear text for a question specifically about this issue.

For the 1-3 option, you can put the top line in the \gla line and then use \glb for all subsequent aligned lines. There can only be one \gla line but there can be multiple \glb lines.

For the 2-3 option, you can put the top line in the \glpreamble line and then use \gla for the first aligned line and \glb for the second aligned line.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{Charis SIL}
\usepackage{expex}
\lingset{% my custom formatting for expex glosses
    belowglpreambleskip=-0.2ex,% shrinks the vertical space between the preamble and the top gloss line
    everygla=,% removes the default italic formatting of the top gloss line
    aboveglftskip=-0.2ex,% shrinks the vertical space between the aligned lines and the free translation line
    interpartskip=1ex,% vertical space between parts of examples
    glspace=!0pt plus .2em,% improves line breaking by increasing the maximum horizontal space between aligned words
    glrightskip=0pt plus .5\hsize,% improves line breaking by increasing the maximum horizontal space between end of line and the right margin
    aboveexskip=1ex plus .4ex minus .4ex,% vertical space above examples
    belowexskip=1.5ex plus .4ex minus .4ex% vertical space below examples
}
\begin{document}
\pex 1-3 Option: Top line is aligned word-by-word
\a \begingl
    \gla katamaːwḛ́ːʍ nakištḭkatká̰n //
    \glb ka-tamáː-ʔḛː-w nak=kin-štḭkát-ka̰n //
    \glb \textsc{opt}-lie.down-\textsc{deb}-\textsc{1pl.sub} \textsc{loc}=1\textsc{po}-sleeping.mat-\textsc{pl.po} //
    \glft Let’s lie down on our sleeping mats!' // \endgl \a \begingl \gla a:'jtzananú: chiwíx xli:lh’a:'nankán // \glb a̰ːxtsananúː čiwíš ḭš-liː-ɬ’a̰ː-nan-kan // \glb long.ago rock \textsc{past}-\textsc{inst}-plow-\textsc{dtrns}-\textsc{idf} // \glftLong ago they plowed with rocks.' //
    \endgl
\xe
\pex 2-3 Option: Top line is not aligned word-by-word
\a \begingl
    \glpreamble katamaːwḛ́ːʍ nakištḭkatká̰n //
    \gla ka-tamáː-ʔḛː-w nak=kin-štḭkát-ka̰n //
    \glb \textsc{opt}-lie.down-\textsc{deb}-\textsc{1pl.sub} \textsc{loc}=1\textsc{po}-sleeping.mat-\textsc{pl.po} //
    \glft Let’s lie down on our sleeping mats!' // \endgl \a \begingl \glpreamble a:'jtzananú: chiwíx xli:lh’a:'nankán // \gla a̰ːxtsananúː čiwíš ḭš-liː-ɬ’a̰ː-nan-kan // \glb long.ago rock \textsc{past}-\textsc{inst}-plow-\textsc{dtrns}-\textsc{idf} // \glftLong ago they plowed with rocks.' //
    \endgl
\xe
\end{document}