Arrows in tikz-qtree with symbols in node names

Question

I have a syntax tree with angle brackets to represent movement:

\begin{tikzpicture}
\Tree [ 
  .TP [ 
     .T' \node{T+verb}; [
        .vP \qroof{`ana}.DP [
          .v' \node{v+{\textlangle}verb{\textrangle}}; [
             .VP [
                .V' \node{V+{\textlangle}verb{\textrangle}}; \qroof{taalib}.DP 
             ]
          ]
        ]
     ]
  ]
]

\end{tikzpicture}

I need to draw arrows between the three nodes, but the example from the tikz-qtree documentation doesn't work; using

\draw[semithick,->] (V+{\textlangle}verb{\textrangle}).. controls +(south west:5)
      and +(south:5) .. (v+{\textlangle}verb{\textrangle});

I get:

! TeX capacity exceeded, sorry [input stack size=5000].
\font@name ->
                 \OT1/cmr/m/n/10 
l.23 ...ick,->] (V+{\textlangle}verb{\textrangle})
                                                                  ..controls +(south west:5)...
If you really absolutely need more capacity,
you can ask a wizard to enlarge me.

I'm guessing that using symbols in the node names messes it up. Can I specify one thing for display and another to use as the node name? Or is there another way to fix this?

Answer 1

When creating a node, there are different delimiters for different purposes:

\node[options](node name){node content};

Any options regarding e.g., the look of the node is specified in square brackets. The node name, which can be used as a coordinate for drawing, is specified in parenthesis. Finally the content of the node, that text which is actually shown in your picture, is specified in braces.

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz-qtree}
\usepackage{tikz-qtree-compat,textcomp}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\Tree [ 
  .TP [ 
     .T' \node{T+verb}; [
        .vP \qroof{`ana}.DP [
          .v' \node(A){v+{\textlangle}verb{\textrangle}}; [
             .VP [
                .V' \node(B){V+{\textlangle}verb{\textrangle}}; \qroof{taalib}.DP 
             ]
          ]
        ]
     ]
  ]
]
\draw [thick,red] (A) to[out=270,in=180] (B);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}