# tree-dvips Alternative for Linguistics Document with pdftex

I'm attempting to find a way of linking two objects in avm.sty together. The result I want is exactly that specified here: http://www.essex.ac.uk/linguistics/external/clmt/latex4ling/avms/#4

I'm using pdftex so tree-dvips does not work. How can the same effect be achieved in pdftex? I assume it could be done with tikz, but I cannot for the life of me work out how.

Sample code is here:

\begin{avm}
${} PRED avoid <SUBJ, OBJ>'; TNS \neq PAST \\ TOPIC \[ PRED kind<COMP>' \\ DEF +; LOC FAR; NUM SG \\ COMP \[ PRED of <OBJ>' \\ OBJ \[ PRED cake'$ \] \] \\
SUBJ $PRED pro'; NUM SG; PERS 1; CASE NOM$ \\
OBJ $\qquad$ \\
ADJ $PRED usually'$ \]
\end{avm}


A tree-dvips implementation would be as follows:

\begin{avm}
${} PRED avoid <SUBJ, OBJ>'; TNS \neq PAST \\ \node{topic}{TOPIC \[ PRED kind<COMP>' \\ DEF +; LOC FAR; NUM SG \\ COMP \[ PRED of <OBJ>' \\ OBJ \[ PRED cake'$ \] \]} \\
SUBJ $PRED pro'; NUM SG; PERS 1; CASE NOM$ \\
\node{object}{OBJ $\qquad$} \\
ADJ $PRED usually'$ \]
\end{avm}
\nodecurve[r]{topic}[r]{object}{2in}


The best I've been able to come up with using tikz is:

\begin{avm}
${} PRED avoid <SUBJ, OBJ>'; TNS \neq PAST \\ \tikz \node (topic) {TOPIC \[ PRED kind<COMP>' \\ DEF +; LOC FAR; NUM SG \\ COMP \[ PRED of <OBJ>' \\ OBJ \[ PRED cake'$ \] \]}; \\
SUBJ $PRED pro'; NUM SG; PERS 1; CASE NOM$ \\
\tikz \node (object) {OBJ $\qquad$}; \\
ADJ $PRED usually'$ \] \tikz \node (viapoint) {};
\end{avm}

\tikz[overlay] \draw[-] (topic) to[out=0,in=90  ] (viapoint)
(viapoint) to[out=270,in=0] (object);


However this results in two disconnected lines, one of which goes through other text.

Any help on improvement would be greatly appreciated.

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It would be a lot easier to help you if you posted complete compilable documents rather than fragments. –  Alan Munn Jun 21 '13 at 2:20
Welcome to TeX.SX! –  Papiro Jun 21 '13 at 2:33

Here's a solution using the tikzmark library. (Documented separately: texdoc tikzmark will show its documentation.)

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{avm}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{tikzmark,positioning}
\begin{document}
\begin{avm}
${} PRED avoid <SUBJ, OBJ>'; TNS \neq PAST \\ TOPIC \[ PRED kind<COMP>' \\ DEF +; LOC FAR; NUM SG \\ COMP \[ PRED of <OBJ>' \\ OBJ \[ PRED cake'$ \] \]\tikzmark{topic} \\
SUBJ $PRED pro'; NUM SG; PERS 1; CASE NOM$ \\
OBJ $\qquad$\tikzmark{object} \\
ADJ $PRED usually'$ \]
\end{avm}

\tikz[remember picture,overlay]
\draw[-] (pic cs:topic) to[out=0,in=0,looseness=2]  (pic cs:object);

\end{document}


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