Command Reference
Status: Current Last updated: 2026-03-30 13:40 EDT
Complete reference for all 33 CLAN analysis commands available in the TalkBank extension. Run any command via right-click Run CLAN Analysis… or the Command Palette. See Running CLAN Commands for the general workflow.
All commands
| Command | Category | Description | Requires | Example use case |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| chains | Coding | Traces code chains and sequences on the %cod tier | %cod tier | Analyzing sequential patterns in coded behaviors |
| chip | Profiling | Child/parent interaction profile – measures responsiveness and initiation | Multi-speaker file | Studying parent-child conversational dynamics |
| codes | Coding | Frequency counts of coding tier codes | %cod tier | Summarizing annotation categories across a session |
| combo | Search | Boolean keyword search with AND/OR operators | Input: search expression | Finding utterances with specific word combinations (e.g., want+cookie) |
| complexity | Profiling | Syntactic complexity ratio from the %gra dependency tier | %gra tier | Measuring subordination and embedding depth |
| cooccur | Frequency | Word co-occurrence counting within utterances | – | Studying lexical associations and collocations |
| corelex | Frequency | Core vocabulary analysis – identifies frequent, high-utility words | – | Checking whether a child uses age-appropriate core words |
| dist | Frequency | Word distribution and dispersion analysis across the transcript | – | Detecting whether target words cluster in one part of the session |
| dss | Profiling | Developmental Sentence Scoring – weighted grammatical complexity | %mor tier; English only | Clinical assessment of grammatical maturity (ages 2;0–6;11) |
| eval | Assessment | Combined language evaluation with normative comparison | – | Adult language assessment against healthy norms |
| evald | Assessment | Dementia-specific evaluation using DementiaBank norms | – | Screening language decline in dementia populations |
| flucalc | Other | Fluency calculation – measures disfluency types and rates | – | Assessing stuttering severity and disfluency patterns |
| freq | Frequency | Word and morpheme frequency counts with type-token ratio | – | Basic vocabulary analysis, word lists for any transcript |
| freqpos | Frequency | Frequency broken down by part-of-speech from %mor tier | %mor tier | Analyzing grammatical category distribution (e.g., noun-to-verb ratio) |
| ipsyn | Profiling | Index of Productive Syntax – 56 or 100-item structural checklist | %mor tier; English only | Assessing range of syntactic structures in child language |
| keymap | Coding | Keyword-based contingency mapping between coded events | Input: keyword codes | Studying temporal relationships between coded behaviors |
| kideval | Assessment | Child language evaluation with age-normed comparison. Panel auto-detects language and activity from file headers. | – | Clinical assessment comparing a child to typically developing peers |
| kwal | Search | Keyword-in-context search – finds utterances containing target words | Input: keywords | Finding all instances of a target word with surrounding context |
| maxwd | Frequency | Longest words per speaker | – | Checking lexical sophistication or spotting transcription errors |
| mlt | Profiling | Mean Length of Turn – utterances and words per conversational turn | Multi-speaker file | Measuring conversational participation and verbosity |
| mlu | Profiling | Mean Length of Utterance – morphemes per utterance | – | The most common measure of grammatical development in children |
| modrep | Frequency | Model and replica analysis of imitation patterns | Multi-speaker file | Studying what children imitate from adult speech |
| mortable | Morphology | Morpheme frequency table based on a user-defined script | Input: .cut script file | Custom morphological analysis (e.g., counting specific inflections) |
| phonfreq | Frequency | Phonological segment frequency from the %pho tier | %pho tier | Phonological inventory analysis, sound acquisition studies |
| rely | Other | Inter-rater reliability between two transcriptions | Input: second .cha file | Verifying transcription agreement between two coders |
| script | Other | Compares a transcript against a template for structural conformance | Input: template .cha file | Checking that a transcript follows a required protocol structure |
| sugar | Profiling | Sampling Utterances and Grammatical Analysis Elicited in Narrative | – | Narrative language assessment using the SUGAR protocol |
| timedur | Other | Time duration computed from bullet timing marks | Bullet timestamps | Calculating speaking time, pause duration, session length |
| trnfix | Other | Compares two dependent tiers for mismatches | Multiple dependent tiers | Quality control: finding alignment errors between %mor and %gra |
| uniq | Frequency | Finds repeated and unique utterances | – | Detecting echolalia, formulaic language, or duplicate transcription lines |
| vocd | Profiling | Vocabulary Diversity – D statistic (sample-size-corrected TTR) | Minimum ~50 tokens | Comparing lexical diversity across speakers or sessions |
| wdlen | Frequency | Word length distribution (character counts) | – | Studying word length patterns for phonological or literacy research |
| wdsize | Frequency | Vocabulary size and character length statistics from %mor stems | %mor tier | Tracking cumulative vocabulary growth |
Commands by category
Frequency (11 commands)
Word counting, vocabulary, and distribution analysis. See Frequency & Distribution for detailed descriptions.
- freq – word frequency counts
- freqpos – frequency by part of speech
- wdlen – word length distribution
- wdsize – vocabulary size
- maxwd – longest words
- phonfreq – phonological segment frequency
- modrep – model and replica (imitation)
- cooccur – word co-occurrence
- corelex – core vocabulary
- dist – word distribution
- uniq – unique/repeated utterances
Profiling (8 commands)
Structural and developmental measures of language. See Profiling Commands for detailed descriptions.
- mlu – Mean Length of Utterance
- mlt – Mean Length of Turn
- vocd – Vocabulary Diversity (D)
- dss – Developmental Sentence Scoring
- ipsyn – Index of Productive Syntax
- chip – child/parent interaction profile
- complexity – syntactic complexity ratio
- sugar – SUGAR narrative sampling
Assessment (3 commands)
Normative comparison against reference databases. See Assessment Tools for detailed descriptions.
- kideval – child language assessment
- eval – general language assessment
- evald – dementia assessment
Search (2 commands)
Finding utterances by keyword or pattern.
- kwal – keyword in context
- combo – Boolean keyword search (AND/OR)
Coding (3 commands)
Working with coding tiers (%cod).
- codes – code frequency counts
- chains – code chains and sequences
- keymap – keyword contingency mapping
Morphology (1 command)
Custom morphological tabulation.
- mortable – morpheme frequency table from a script
Other (5 commands)
Specialized tools for specific tasks.
- flucalc – fluency/disfluency calculation
- rely – inter-rater reliability
- script – template comparison
- timedur – timing duration
- trnfix – tier mismatch detection
Library files used by commands
Several commands use rule files from the clan-info/lib/ directory.
These files ship with the extension and are discovered automatically
by the language server.
| Command | Library path | Files |
|---|---|---|
| dss | clan-info/lib/dss/ | eng.cut, engu.cut, bss.cut, jpn.cut |
| ipsyn | clan-info/lib/ipsyn/ | eng.cut, eng-100.cut |
| kideval | clan-info/lib/kideval/ | 15 database files (see Assessment Tools) |
| eval / evald | clan-info/lib/eval/ | 4 database files (see Assessment Tools) |
| corelex | clan-info/lib/corelex/ | cat.cut, cinderella.cut, cookie.cut, cookie-short.cut, cookie_modern.cut, sandwich.cut, umbrella.cut, window.cut |
| flucalc | clan-info/lib/fluency/ | ALLflucodes.cut |
Next steps
- Running CLAN Commands – how to run commands and export results
- Profiling Commands – detailed guide to MLU, VOCD, DSS, IPSyn
- Frequency & Distribution – detailed guide to FREQ, WDLEN, and more
- Assessment Tools – KidEval, Eval, Eval-D normative comparison