Line breaks: general

Encoding Instructions (new P5 version)

The WWP encodes line breaks within elements using lb. By convention, as with the pb and cb elements, the pb element is understood to mark the beginning of a new line.

Line breaks between elements (that is, the fact that an element begins on a new line) are encoded using the renditional attribute: rend="break(yes|no)". Wherever possible, this information should be encoded as part of the default rendition for each element. Defaults will be set globally (i.e. outside the individual document) for certain elements which seem especially predictable, and for these the encoder only needs to specify a default if the text differs from the normal pattern. In general, these global defaults are completely intuitive (for instance, the default for persName is no and for head is yes). For lists showing how these global defaults have been set, see 164.

Lines of poetry are handled differently, since a poetic line is typically a metrically rather than typographically defined unit. For more detail, see 063 on line breaks in verse, and 073 for more on verse in general.

Poetic lines are sometimes broken purposefully, either to indicate a paragraph break within the poetic narrative (which may fall in the middle of a poetic line) or to indicate a shift of speaker (as in dramatic verse). For more detail, and for instructions on how to encode these instances, see 203 on overlapping structures.

Example 1. Line 
            breaks in prose
            <p>However much I tried, I could not
            <lb/>reconcile myself to this course, which
            <lb/>seemed both reckless and ill-considered.</p>
        

Example 2. Lines and line breaks in poetry
                <lg type="stanza">
                <l>The birds are late returning to their nest.</l>
                <l>They really can’t be counted on to know
                <lb/>what’s best.</l>
                </lg>
            

Example 3. Part lines in poetry
                <lg type="para">
                <l>He solitary wandered, while the maid</l>
                <l>Whose peerless beauty won his yielding heart</l>
                <l>Condemn’d by lordly, needy persecution</l>
                <l part="I">Pined in monastic 
                horrors!</l></lg>
                <lg type="para"><l part="F">Near his 
                sill</l>
                <l>A little cross he reared; where prostrate he</l>...
                </lg>