2

I'm using the \begin{cases}...\end{cases} to create a nested bracket structure, but I'm facing an issue where the tops of the braces in multiple levels are aligned at the same height, causing extra vertical space above the left and middle braces. This makes the braces sit too high above the first line of text.

I would like to reduce the extra space and align the top of the brace with the top of the first text line.

Here is the LaTeX code I'm using:

\begin{align*}
    \text{clitics}
    \begin{cases}
        \text{phrase-final clitics}
        \begin{cases}
            \text{enclitic pronouns}
            \begin{cases}
                \text{possessive pronouns} \\
                \text{enclitic demonstratives} \\
                \text{connective \{be\}}
            \end{cases}\\
            \text{plural marker \{en\=e\}} \\
            \text{case markers}
        \end{cases} \\
        \text{clause-final clitics}
    \end{cases}
\end{align*}

Here is what I currently get:

enter image description here

Here is what I want to achieve:

enter image description here

Any suggestions on how to fix this? Thank you in advance!

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
5

Here is a solution with {NiceTabular} of nicematrix and its built-in command \SubMatrix.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{nicematrix}

\begin{document}

\begin{NiceTabular}{llll}
        &                      &                       & possesive pronouns \\[5mm]
        &                      & enclitic pronouns     & enclitic demonstratives \\[5mm]
        & phrase-final clitics & plural marker \{enē\} & connective \{be\} \\[5mm]
clitics & & case markers \\[5mm]
        & clause-final clitics
\CodeAfter
  \SubMatrix{\{}{3-2}{5-2}{.}
  \SubMatrix{\{}{2-3}{4-3}{.}
  \SubMatrix{\{}{1-4}{3-4}{.}

\end{NiceTabular}        
        
\end{document}

You need several compilations.

Output of the above code

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3

You can achieve this with low-weight approach using \smash[t]. But an explicit extra skip at top needs to be added.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{amsmath}

\begin{document}
Before
\vspace*{2\baselineskip}
\begin{equation*}
  \text{clitics}
  \begin{cases}
    \text{phrase-final clitics}
    \smash[t]{\begin{cases}
      \text{enclitic pronouns}\qquad
      \smash{\begin{cases}
        \text{possessive pronouns} \\
        \text{enclitic demonstratives} \\
        \text{connective \{be\}}
      \end{cases}}\\
      \text{plural marker \{en\=e\}} \\
      \text{case markers}
    \end{cases}} \\
    \text{clause-final clitics}
  \end{cases}
\end{equation*}
After
\end{document}

smash

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