TEI XML

From Chswiki

Summary guide to TEI markup conventions for MultiText of Homer project

Basic XML concepts: reminders

Elements describe the structure or meaning of some part of an XML document (e.g., “This unit constitutes a book-level division,” “This unit is a hexameter line,” “The reading of this word in the MS is uncertain.”) Syntactically, the beginning of an element is tagged by the name of the element contained by angle brackets, while the end of an element is tagged by the name of the element preceded by a slash, all contained by angle brackets. Elements may be defined to contain text content, other elements, or both.

Attributes provide additional information about an element (e.g., “This book is labelled as number '3',” “the language of this unit of the document is Ancient Greek”). Syntactically, attributes are expressed within the opening tag of an element by an expression of the form attributename=”attributevalue”

TEI-conformant markup

In the MTH project, we will follow the guidelines of the Text Encoding Initiative (see www.tei-c.org).

Since the TEI Guidelines often suggest more than one possible way to mark up the same content, it is essential that a project like MTH identify and consistently follow one and only one recommended option as our “house style.” (Team members who want to learn more about the relevant sections of the TEI Guidelines should look in particular at Chapter 6, “Elements Available in All TEI Documents” online at http://www.tei-c.org/P4X/CO.html and Chapter 18, “Transcription of Primary Sources” online at http://www.tei-c.org/P4X/PH.html.) The following list of MTH conventions will undoubtedly grow as, in the course of our work, we recognize more features that we need to describe with markup following the TEI's recommendations, but as of now, we can list the following:

• variant reading: when the apparatus indicates that your MS has a different reading from the printed text, simply change the text content of the appropriate section of your XML document
• erasure in the MS: the erased reading should be surrounded with the <del> element.
• additional text (can be noted as superscript in app. crit. by ss when added above the line ): the added text should be surrounded with the <add> element. Use the place attribute if a location is given (e.g., with value “supralinear” for app. crit. Entry ss); use the hand attribute to indicate who is reponsible for the added text. (See your advisor for help setting up a list of hands in your document that you can cite.)
• a correction of the text by a second hand (can be indciated in the apparatus by corr.): use the <del> element as above to show what has been replaced, and the <add> element to show what has replaced it. Include a resp atrribute on the <add> element. Again, see your advisor for help setting up a list of hands in your document that you can cite.
• Allen uncertain in his reading of text (can be indicated apparatus by ut vid.): the uncertain reading should be surrounded with the <unclear> element; include two two attributes, first resp='Allen' to indicate that Allen is repsonsible for the judgment that this reading is unclear, and second desc='ut vid.' to preserve Allen's description of his uncertainty.
• A somewhat different situation arises when we are uncertain about what Allen intended by a given entry in the apparatus. I don't believe the TEI guidelines ever foresaw the possibility that someone could try to create a transcription of a MS from a printed apparatus that might be ambiguous. I propose that we add TEI <note> elements at these points in the text: in these notes, the MTH editors should simply indicate what is ambiguous or unclear.
• A further case is when the apparatus indicates the addition of a reading that does not correct or replace the reading in the text, but simply offers an alternative reading. These are Allen's mg or ss. We'll mark as <note> elements with a place attribute = “superscript” or “margin” and resp = “hand2”