The Guidelines P5 of the Text Encoding Initiative TEI

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The Guidelines (P5) of the Text Encoding
Initiative (TEI)

• Laurent Romary
• Max Planck Digital Library
• With many thanks to Lou Burnard (OUCS)

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In the beginning
Michael Sperberg-McQuen
Lou Burnard
Antonio Zampolli
1. Novembre 1987 Vassar College, Poughkeepsie
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The basic scenario?
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Early Americas Digital Archive

• material
• transcriptions of early printed books
• organization
• library metaphor
• technologies
• XSLT rendering in the browser simple search via
  php
• TEI source visible?
• Yes, via view source

http//www.mith2.umd.edu/eada/
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Samyukta Agama

• material
• multiple recensions from different traditions of
  the Buddhist Canon
• organization
• aligned texts for each sutra
• technologies
• Cocoon, eXist, Xquery
• TEI source visible?
• yes

http//buddhistinformatics.chibs.edu.tw/BZA/
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Can scientists bear standards?

• Standards are essentially bad for scientists
• Freezing knowledge
• Making one lose time that could be dedicated to
  research
• Forcing diverging views to agree
• especially if the work is done by others
• A positive view on standards
• Documenting data
• Giving semantics to data
• Pooling data from various origins
• Allowing interoperability of tools
• A possible answer
• Standards as specification platforms
• Does the TEI provide you with this?

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An overview of the TEI elements
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Basic structure(s)

• Every TEI-conformant document comprises a header
  followed by (at least one) text
• the header contains
• mandatory file description
• optional encoding, profile and revision
  descriptions
• the header is essential for
• bibliographic control and identification
• resource documentation and processing

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Structure of a TEI text

• In the simplest case, a text just consists of
  paragraphs or clauses or verse lines
• A TEI text has a little more structure it
  contains
• optional front matter
• optional back matter
• a body

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The body of a text usually has divisions

• usually nested one with another
• the type attribute labels a particular level e.g.
  as "part" or "chapter
• the n attribute gives a particular division a
  name or number
• the xmlid attribute gives a particular division
  a unique identifier

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For example...

• Book I.
• xmlid"JA0101"
• Of writing lives in
  general...

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TEI global attributes

• The attribute class att.global defines these for
  all elements
• xmlid supplies a unique identifier
• n supplies a (non-unique) name or number
• rend gives a suggestion about rendition
  (appearance)
• xmllang identifies the language using an ISO
  standard code
• The linking module extends this class with
• corresp, synch, ana for specific association
  types
• next, prev for aggregating fragmented elements

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Text components

• What are divisions composed of?
• prose is mostly paragraphs (p)
• verse is mostly lines (l), sometimes in
  hierarchic groups (lg)
• drama is mostly speeches (sp) containing p or l
  elements interspersed with stage directions
  (stage)
• These may be mixed, and may also appear directly
  within
• undivided texts
• .... but divisions can also contain embedded text
  or quote
• elements.

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For example

• Of Man's first disobedience, and the
  fruit
• Of that forbidden tree whose mortal
  taste
• Brought death into the World, and all our
  woe,
• With loss of Eden...
• ....
• Summer grass
• all that's left
• of warriors' dreams

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For example

• Enter Barnardo and Francisco, two
  Sentinels,at several doors
• Who's there?
• Nay, answer me. Stand and unfold
  yourself.
• Long live the king!
• Barnardo?
• He.

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not to mention

• .... And he wrote on one side of the paper
• HELP!
• PIGLIT (ME)
• and on the other side
• IT'S ME PIGLIT, HELP HELP
• Then he put the paper in the bottle...

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What are speeches, paragraphs, and lines made of?

• phrases that are conventionally typographically
  distinct
• data-like (names, numbers, dates, times,
  addresses)
• editorial interventions (corrections,
  regularizations, additions, omissions ...)
• cross references and links
• lists, notes, graphics, tables, bibliographic
  citations...
• all kinds of annotations!
• Which of these you need to markup will depend on
  your research
• agenda

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for example...

• Of writing lives in general,and
  particularly of Pamela, with a
  word by the bye of Colley
  Cibber and others.
• It is a trite but true observation, that
  examples work more forcibly on the mind than
  precepts
• Mr. Joseph Andrews,
  the hero of our ensuing history, was
  esteemed to be ...

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Direct speech

• Use the who attribute to show speakers
• Speeches can be nested in other speeches
• Spaulding, he came down into the
  office just this
• day eight weeks with this very paper in his hand,
  and he says
• I wish to the Lord, Mr.
  Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.

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Foreign language phrases

• The xmllang attribute may be attached to any
  element
• Use if nothing else is available
• Use ISO 639-2 code to identify language
• Have you read Die
  Dreigroschenoper?
• Savoir-faire
  is French for know-how.
• John has real savoir-faire
  .

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Inter class elements

• lists of all kinds
• notes (authorial or editorial)
• pictures or figures
• tables
• bibliographic descriptions

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for example...

• For my true love
• three calling birds
• two french hens
• a partridge in a pear
  tree
• For Uncle Joe
• socks as usual

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Example

• Mr Fezziwig's Ball
• A Cruikshank engraving showing Mr
  Fezziwig leading a group of revellers.

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Feeling overwhelmed?

• All of this is just one way of looking at the
  TEI.
• 1. The TEI is a modular system you use it to
  build an encoding scheme appropriate to your
  needs, by selecting specific modules
• 2. Each module defines a group of elements and
  attributes
• 3. Elements are classified structurally and
  semantically
• Define your goals before using the TEI!

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Some other modules

• Your choice from
• 1. Transcription of spoken texts
• 2. Dictionaries and lexica
• 3. Varieties of linguistic annotation
• 4. Nonstandard characters and glyphs
• 5. Linking, alignment, non-hierarchic
  structures
• 6. Detailed metadata (the TEI Header)
• 7. Manuscript Description
• 8. Text-critical apparatus
• 9. Physical description
• 10. Onomastics and ontologies
• 11. The ODD system

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Customizing the TEIHow do you use the TEI
modular structure?
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The global TEI architecture
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Following the TEI spirit

• Conformance to the TEI means
• Sharing a common text encoding culture
• Sharing the same vocabulary (when applicable)
• Allowing user autonomy in defining modifications
  (extensions, customization), but sharing the
  mechanisms to do so
• The TEI gives you a lot of help in following
  these rules.

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Important concepts

• The TEI's literary programming with ODD (One
  Document Does it
• all) provides
• Schema specification
• User oriented documentation
• Modularity all specifications pertaining to a
  coherent sub-domain of the TEI
• Classes identifying shared behaviours or
  semantics
• Extensibility a consequence of the above
  mechanisms

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The TEI ODD in practice

• The TEI Guidelines, its schema, and its schema
  fragments, are
• all produced from a single XML resource
  containing
• 1. Descriptive prose (lots of it)
• 2. Examples of usage (plenty)
• 3. Formal declarations for components of the TEI
  Abstract Model
• elements and attributes
• Modules
• classes and macros

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Possibilities of customizing the TEI

• The TEI has over 20 modules. A working project
  will
• Choose the modules they need
• Probably narrow the set of elements within a
  module
• Probably add local datatype constraints
• Possibly add new elements
• Possibly localize the names of elements

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Quick and simple access to the TEI

• Imagine that you have seen your colleague next
  door doing some
• encoding with the TEI and want to do the same
  thing
• Go to Roma at http//tei.oucs.ox.ac.uk/Roma/
• Generate a schema Schema
• Make a trial with the editor, creating a simple
  document
• Get back to Roma and make basic documentation

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RomaStart
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RomaSchema Select
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RomaGenerate Doc
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Subsetting the TEI

• Suppose you now feel you want to use some more of
  the TEI, but
• not all of it
• Go to Roma...
• Look at Modules
• Explore default modules by pointing to main
  elements (by order of interest). You can throw
  away most things, but
• In textstructure, you should really keep TEI,
  text, body and div
• In core, most people need p, q, list, pb and head
• From header, keep everything unless you really
  understand the details
• Start checking out elements
• Make editorial choices (numbered vs. unnumbered
  heads)

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Roma Modules
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Roma Change Module
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Adding TEI objects

• You can add your own elements and attributes. But
• make very sure you are not just making something
  which is syntactic sugar for an existing TEI
  concept
• do not rename existing elements - you can do that
  directly in ODD
• if you want facilities from a very different
  field of discourse, such as maths or vector
  graphics, use the existing standards in that area
• consider interoperability

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Roma Add Element
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Under the hood

• TEI customizations are themselves expressed in
  TEI XML, using
• elements from the tagdocs module.
• For example
• This is TEI Lite with simplified
  heads

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What does an ODD look like?

• 
  
• A unique
  identifier
• supplies the identifier of
  the person or group pausing. Its value is the
  identifier of a person
• or persGrp element
  in the TEI header.
• 
  

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... from which we generate

• element pause pause.content, pause.attributes
  pause.content empty
• pause.attributes
• att.global.attributes,
• att.timed.attributes,
• att.typed.attributes,
• att.ascribed.attributes,
• model.divPart.spoken pause
• att.timed pause
• att.typed pause
• att.ascribed pause

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.. or

• att.global.attributes
• att.timed.attributes
• att.typed.attributes
• att.ascribed.attributes
• "x.model.divPart.spoken n.event
  n.kinesic
• n.pause n.shift n.u
• n.vocal n.writing"

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... and, indeed
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MPDL CoLaboratory (MPDL CoLab)

• Platform for community building and knowledge
  exchange
• Aim
• improve exchange of explicit knwoledge and make
  tacit and individual know-how explicit
• Supports community-building processes
• Connects people with similar fields of interest
  and goals
• within the MPS MPDL, librarians, scientists
• Outside underlying basis of our national and
  international collaborations
• Provide information about existing standards and
  best practices in the domain of supporting
  scientific life cycles
• Ensuring long-term compatibility between local
  and centralized initiatives within the MPDL

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Exploring TEI P5

• Visit http//www.tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/
  html/
• alphabetical lists of classes, macros, elements
• each chapter describes a distinct module
• each module presents a semantically related list
  of elements, with examples of their use
• Feedback and advice available to all on
  tei-l_at_listserv.brown.edu