Renditional keywords: bestow and bequeath
Abstract
Use of the bestow and bequeath keywords to propagate renditional information from an element to its children or descendants
Encoding Instructions (old P4 version)
The bestow and bequeath keywords are ways to propagate renditional information from one element to its descendants or its children. They can save a great deal of encoding and reduplication if used correctly. Cases where they may be useful include sections of text whose background rendition is reversed (e.g. a prefatory div in italics), where the rendition of phrase-level elements is the reverse of the default; also in long quotations which propagate quotation marks down the left margin.
The syntax for these two elements is identical; it first identifies the rendition(s) to be bestowed or bequeathed, and then the element or elements to which that rendition is to be given (multiple recipient elements are separated by spaces):
<div rend="bestow( (slant(italic)face(roman)) (persName placeName foreign emph mcr))">
The function of these two keywords is also nearly identical, except that the bestow keyword propagates its features to all of the element’s descendants (any element within it, no matter how deeply nested), whereas the bequeath keyword propagates its features only to the element’s children (that is, the elements which are immediately nested within it).
Thus bequeath is appropriate in cases like nested lists, where the same element needs different treatment depending on its level of nesting:
<list rend="bequeath( (pre(•) indent(+1)) (item))">
itemFirst item/item
itemSecond item/item
itemlistitemsubitem 1/item
itemsubitem 2/item/list
itemThird item/item
/list
In this example, the items in the outer list get bullets, but the items in the nested list (subitems 1 and 2) do not. The nested parentheses in the keyword value look confusing, but if you take each component separately it becomes clearer. The two basic parts are the rendition ladder being bequeathed, and the name of the element it will affect. Each of these components are enclosed in a separate set of parentheses, and then the whole thing is enclosed within parentheses to become the argument of the bequeath keyword.
Bestow is appropriate in cases where you want the rendition to affect all instances of a particular element which occur within the parent element, not just the direct children. An example of this would be quotations in early texts, where the quotation marks extend down the entire margin of the quotation. In this case, the element to be affected is lb, which is often a direct child of the q element. However, since lb might nest inside other elements which cross line breaks (such as name), bequeath will not work (since in those cases lb is not a direct child of q). In this case, bestow is necessary, since it will propagate rendition to all lb elements within the q element, no matter how deeply nested:
<q rend="bestow( (pre(“)) (lb) )">
Examples
Example 1. A very complex example in which the bestow keyword acts to bestow the
bequeath keyword on two of the nested elements. There are three bestow events in the
example below. The first bestows a quotation mark at the beginning of each
<p>, <opener>, and <salute> within the entire
quotation. The second bestows a “bequeath” keyword on <salute>, such that
line breaks within <salute receive a quotation mark. The third bestows another
“bequeath” keyword, this time on <signed>, such that
<persName> within <signed> will receive a quotation mark. The
original text looks like this: "Madam "Permit me to thank you for the favour you con-
ferred on me, by sending me your tragedy. I trust you will not deem me guilty of flattery
when I as- sure you that few productions of the present poetical age have afforded me more
pleasure, than the perusal of the second act; the scene between Honoria and her father is
very well managed, and capable of much effect; as is the scene with the banditti in the
third. "I imagine many will unite with me in observing how much your continuing to
persevere in this spe- cies of composition would increase your profit, and enhance your
poetical reputation; which has al- ready much signalized itself in the rich field of Eng-
lish literature. "I have the honour to remain, "Madam, &c. &c. St. James’s
Square, (Signed) “LEEDS.” Friday Morning. The encoding looks like this: <quote
rend="pre()bestow((pre(“))(p opener
closer))bestow((bequeath((pre(“))(lb)))(salute))bestow((bequeath((pre(“))(persName)))(signed))">
<text xml:id="TR00190-01"> <body> <div
type="letter"> <opener rend="indent(2)"> <salute
rend="case(smallcaps)">Madam,</salute></opener>
<p>Permit me to thank you for the favour you con­
<lb/>ferred on me, by sending me your tragedy. I trust
<lb/>you will not deem me guilty of flattery when I as­
<lb/>sure you that few productions of the present poetical
<lb/>age have afforded me more pleasure, than the perusal
<lb/>of the second act; the scene between
<persName>Honoria</persName> and <lb/>her father
is very well managed, and capable of <lb/>much effect; as is the scene with
the banditti in the <lb/>third.</p> <p>I imagine
many will unite with me in observing <cb/> <lb/>how much your
continuing to persevere in this spe­ <lb/>cies of composition
would increase your profit, and <lb/>enhance your poetical reputation; which
has al­ <lb/>ready much signalized itself in the rich field of
Eng­ lish literature.</p> <closer
rend="indent(2)"><salute>I have the honour to remain, <lb
rend="indent(3)"/>Madam, &c. &c.</salute>
<signed rend="indent(3)">(Signed) <persName
rend="pre(“)case(allcaps)align(right)"
key="dukeoflee.bew">Leeds</persName>.</signed>
<dateline rend="slant(italic)"><placeName>St. James’s
Square</placeName>, <lb
rend="indent(1)"/><name>Friday</name>
Morning.</dateline></closer> </div>
</body> </text> </quote>