# Conceptual Semantics diagrams

for a university assignment I have to typeset this kind of diagrams (from Jackendoff's Conceptual Semantics framework). I'm not that familiar with LaTeX's handling of matrixes, tikz and so on, so I wondered whether any of you has an idea about how I can draw these in a smart way :) Thank you!

So far, I've tried with the avm package - something like this:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{avm}

\begin{document}
\avmfont{\sc}
\avmoptions{sorted,bottom}
\avmsortfont{\sc}

\begin{avm}
${mat} {\rm -b,+i} \cr pl \[ {} \[ {} {\rm +b,-i} \cr teapot$ \]
\]
\end{avm}
\end{document


But I can't manage to put the labels inside the brackets, as in the picture. Moreover, there are a whole lot of placement and spacing issues.

• I added in the question the solution I've gone for so far. Hope it helps :) – Giovanni Roversi May 17 '16 at 20:37
• avm package does not appear to be in my TeXlive 2015. Does it really redefine $ ? – Thruston May 17 '16 at 21:02 • No, I had to download it and import it via \input avm.sty. And yes, it redefines \[ inside its own environment, apparently – Giovanni Roversi May 17 '16 at 21:12 • Where did you get avm.sty from? Normally, I'd check CTAN first but it is down. – cfr May 17 '16 at 21:30 • Yep, I got it from CTAN (right before it went down apparently, how lucky). The doc is here (nlp.stanford.edu/manning/tex/avm-doc.pdf), but it doesn't really help me... – Giovanni Roversi May 17 '16 at 21:41 ## 1 Answer I can't help but feel that there should be a better package somewhere if this is a standard notation. This is most inelegant - not to say hackish. Note that I've switched to LaTeX font commands. \bf, \rm etc. should not be used in LaTeX as they were made obsolete by 2e a couple of decades ago. (I think the documentation uses them because it is intended to be usable with other formats - not just LaTeX.) cfr-lm is loaded to get the italic small-caps Latin Modern. \documentclass{article} \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} \usepackage[rm=lining,sf=lining,tt=lining]{cfr-lm} \usepackage{avm} \begin{document} \avmfont{\scshape} \avmoptions{bottom,sorted} \avmsortfont{\sishape} \newcommand*\labelme[1]{\rlap{\hskip .5em #1}} \begin{avm} \[{\labelme{mat}} {\upshape -b,+i} \\ & pl \[{} \[{\labelme{mat}} {\upshape +b,-i} \\ teapot \\[1em]$
\] \\
\]
\end{avm}
\end{document}


• It's not elegant, it's hackish, and it works perfectly! :) Thank you very much. – Giovanni Roversi May 18 '16 at 7:57