Text Encoding Fundamentals: Element list Julia Flanders Syd Bauman

An unpublished document used for training.

Available under GFDL, no invariant sections

Copyleft 2006 Syd Bauman & Julia Flanders

Modified from http://dev.stg.brown.edu/staff/Julia_Flanders/tei/uvic/elements.html.

 Fixed well-formedness error; merged two entries for argument. Added detail to sp, minor fixes. Added argument. Minor error corrections Minor error corrections and some improvements suggested by JF Minor typo fixes Per JF, create new section for attributes, moving xml:lang there (but leaving poetry attrs where they are), and adding target type n next & prev xml:id Corrections to match current state of our system & P5, e.g., changing date to when on change and fixing comment. Added postscript and said Corrections to match current state of P5: spanTo for addSpan and delSpan desc of gap is really desc provide pointer to Guidelines minor changes to wording of description of teiHeader, body corrected some phrase-level encoding Fixed examples entry on language identification; moved distinct; fixed spelling of handShift. Converted from XHTML to TEI Lite P4:2004 XML. Folded complex poetry and simple poetry into a single poetry section. Minor fixes to TEI.2 and foreign. Converted from TEI Lite P4:2002 XML to P5 pre-release 0.3.1. Elements for basic TEI documents

This is more of a brief reference sheet than an exhaustive list of TEI elements: it is intended to provide you with a way to look up the most commonly used elements, grouped together for the exercises in which we’ll be encountering them. For detailed information about the contents and semantics of these elements (and for other more arcane elements), have a look at the TEI Guidelines.

Simple prose A division of a text: for instance, an act, a chapter, a section, a poem, a letter… Use the type attribute to indicate what kind of division. The heading of a division: contains words and phrase-level encoding. head may appear at the start of div, but also at the start of body, front, back, list, and lg. A prose paragraph: contains words and phrase-level encoding. A list: contains a series of item elements. An item in a list: contains an optional label followed by words and phrase-level encoding, or a series of paragraphs. The label of an item (e.g. a letter, number, or word indicating its order or other facts about it): contains words and phrase-level encoding. Note that label can also be the first element inside a paragraph. Passages spoken aloud or thought, e.g. by a character in a novel Used to encode quotations from other sources; contains words and phrase-level encoding.
Phrase-level encoding Used to encode all kinds of names. If you want to distinguish between different kinds of names, you can use the type attribute (e.g. name type="person"). TEI also includes specific elements for different kinds of names (e.g. persName) for projects that need more detailed encoding. Used to encode dates. The when attribute can be used to encode a regularized form of the date (e.g. The first year of the new century]]> or Sun, 29 May 05]]>). Used for foreign-language words when no other element (e.g. quote) is already present. Used for linguistically distinct words (e.g. dialect words, regionally accented words). Used for words which are mentioned but not used (for instance, for spelling or definition purposes). Used to encode specialized terminology; often associated with a gloss. Used to encode emphasized words or phrases. Used to encode (or express) authorial distance; e.g., phrases that were or should be in scare quotes. Used to encode words or phrases which are highlighted for reasons which the encoder either does not know or chooses not to analyse. Used to encode passages surrounded by quotation marks, when you don’t want to bother with a more precise element like said. Roughly the same as hi rend="surrounded-with-quotation-marks".
Poetry A group of verse lines: contains one or more l elements. May be optionally used to specify the rhyme scheme of the line group. A single verse line: contains words and phrase-level elements. May be optionally used to specify the metrical pattern of the line. May be optionally used to indicate the portion of the metrical line that rhymes, and with its label attribute which part of the rhyme scheme is in play.
Simple drama A dramatic speech; usually begins with a speaker element, followed by a p or lg. A speaker identification printed in the text A stage direction. The type attribute may be used to identify the kind of stage direction; suggested values include: business costume delivery entrance exit location narrative novelistic A cast list in a dramatic text, listing the roles in the drama. It consists of one or more castItem or castGroup elements. A grouping of related items in a cast list, containing one or more castItem elements and an optional head and trailer. An item in a cast list, containing a role and an optional roleDesc. The name of a role in a cast list The description of a role in a cast list
Text structure The outermost (or root) element for any TEI P5 conformant document. It groups together the TEI header and the document text. It must have the TEI namespace specifed, and should have an xml:lang attribute, i.e. TEI xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" xml:lang="en". The wrapper for all of the document’s metadata. The elements that go inside the TEI header are too numerous to list usefully here; see the templates for details. The wrapper element which contains all of the document’s content. The text element is most often used for a single work (i.e. a single published document, or a single aesthetic unit such as a play or a work of fiction). Terms like single work and aesthetic unit need to be defined by the individual project. A text element contains an optional front, a mandatory body, and an optional back. Contains the front matter of the document, if any: title pages, tables of contents, introductory essays, and so forth. The front element contains an optional titlePage and may be subdivided into div elements. Contains the main body of the document, not including front matter and back matter. The body element typically includes one or more div elements. It may start with a head. (Think about where the head belongs—is it the heading for the body, or the heading for the first division?) Contains the back matter of the document, if any: indices, appendices, epilogues, colophons, errata lists, etc. May be subdivided into div elements if necessary. This element is used to represent documents which contain more than one independent text. It appears instead of body in the overall TEI document structure, and groups together multiple text elements, with an optional front and back.
Complex prose A short summary or description of the contents of the following section. Contains one or more p or lg elements. A note (a footnote, endnote, marginal note, or inline note). Link the note to the point where it’s anchored using xml:id and target. note contains most anything, including words and phrase-level encoding, or one or more p elements. An anchor point, usually used as a place for some other element (such as a note) to point to, using the anchor’s xml:id attribute. This element may appear at the start of a div, text, front, or back, and it groups together the elements that appear at the start of a letter or similar document: the date and place of writing (using dateLine, and the salutation to the person being addressed (using salute). Very similar to opener, but located at the end of the div instead of at the beginning. This element is used for things that come at the very end of the document or section, such as The End. Used within opener and closer to encode the date and place of writing. Contains words and phrase-level encoding. Used within opener and closer to encode the salutation to the person being addressed (e.g. Dear Sir, or I remain faithfully yours…). Contains words and phrase-level encoding. Used within closer to encode the signature or name of the person writing. Contains words and phrase-level encoding. Used to encode a postscript, e.g. of a letter. Used to encode bibliographical references, either in a list (using listBibl) or in running prose.
Alternative Encodings Groups together two or more alternate encodings of a phrase-level passage, using the elements listed below. An abbreviation; may be used alone or, when inside choice, in combination with expan which holds an expanded reading. The expanded reading of an abbreviation; typically used inside choice, in combination with abbr which holds the corresponding abbreviated reading. Rarely used alone. A typographical error or oddity in the original; may be used alone or, when inside choice, in combination with corr, which holds a corrected reading. A corrected reading of a typographical error or oddity in the original; may be used alone or, when inside choice, in combination with sic, which holds the original reading. An unmodernized reading in the original; may be used alone or, when inside choice, in combination with reg, which holds a regularized reading. A modernization of a reading in the original; may be used alone or, when inside choice, in combination with orig, which holds the corresponding unmodernized reading.
Manuscripts and Encoding Physical Documents An empty element which marks the break between one page and another. By convention, information stored in the attributes of pb refer to the page that follows the break. Equivalent to milestone unit="page". An empty element which marks a typographical line break. Equivalent to milestone unit="line". An empty element which marks the break between one column and the next. Equivalent to milestone unit="column". An empty element which marks a boundary point in the text according to some standard reference system, such as signatures, scrolls, leaves. Use the unit attribute to indicate the reference system whose units are being marked at this point. A handwritten addition. The hand attribute indicates the handwriting in which the addition is made. This attribute contains an identifier which points to a hand element in the profileDesc of the TEI header; this hand element contains an extended description of the handwriting, ink, and other details. An empty element which marks the starting point for a handwritten addition that either is too long to be encoded with add, or overlaps an element boundary. Its spanTo attribute points to an anchor element which marks the endpoint of the added material. The hand attribute indicates the handwriting in which the addition is made (see above for details). A deletion. The hand attribute indicates the handwriting in which the addition is made (see above for details). An empty element which marks the starting point for a deletion that is either too long to be encoded with del or that overlaps an element boundary. Its spanTo attribute points to an anchor element which marks the endpoint of the deleted material. The hand attribute indicates the handwriting in which the deletion is made (see above for details). An empty element which marks the boundary point at which a change of handwriting takes place. Its new attribute indicates the handwriting that begins at the point being marked. The new attribute functions just like the hand attribute, in pointing to a hand element in the TEI header, which provides detailed information on the handwriting in question.
Transcriptional complexities Indicates that a given word or passage cannot be read in the original and is being supplied (either through editorial judgment or from some other textual source). Indicates that a given word or passage is unclear, but not entirely illegible (expresses uncertainty rather than absolute lack of information); multiple alternative readings may be grouped in a choice element. A damaged portion of the original text; the type attribute allows you to classify the damage, and the extent attribute allows you to indicate the extent of the damage. A gap in the original text (either from damage, deletion, excerption, or some other cause). The desc child element provides a description of what is missing, and the reason attribute provides the reason for the omission. Groups together an add and a del so that the addition is understood as being a substitution for the deletion. Indicates restoration of text to an earlier state by cancellation of a marking or instruction; in particular, useful to indicate that a deletion was restored, e.g. by the notation stet. Contains one entry in a critical apparatus, with an optional lemma and at least one reading. A single reading, e.g. from a particular witness. A lemma; e.g., the reading from the base text.
Attributes Provides a unique identifier for this particular element, thus allowing other elements to point to it (using their target, next, prev, etc.). Provides a label or identifier for this particular element, not necessarily unique. Provides a URI (e.g. http://bauman.zapto.org/gallery/Niagara_Falls_2008-01/2008_01_07T16_35_39 or #sect08) that points to either another document or an element within an XML document (including the current one). Allow what is logically a single text object (e.g. a quotation) to be encoded as a series of two or more discrete XML elements, as a work-around for overlap problems. These attributes represent the connections between these fragmentary elements, by pointing to a prior or subsequent element in the chain of fragments. They do so by referring to that element’s xml:id value. That is, if next is specified on a said element, then its value should be a hash mark (#) followed by the value of the xml:id of another said element, the one that is the next part of the spoken passage. For example, Hey, he said, What's up?]]> Used to indicate the language of an element’s content. Its value conforms to BCP 47 (a standard system for defining language codes). For information on how BCP 47 codes are constructed, see the note in the data.language documentation. Some sample values for the xml:lang attribute are: English en French fr German de Italian it Latin la Arabic as spoken in Iraq ar-IQ Chinese zh simplified Chinese zh-Hans Taiwanese zh-TW
If further explanation is required, a language element with an ident attribute of the same BCP 47 code can be specified in the TEI header.

Copyleft 2008 Syd Bauman and Julia Flanders; source available at http://www.wwp.brown.edu/encoding/seminars/master/handouts/elementList.tei.