I'd like to second this advice: for this kind of thing, the TEI is
probably more than adequate and not difficult to implement. I used
earlier version for an Old English glossary and found it more than
adequate.
The latest release of the TEI also encourages adaption, modification,
simplification where this is useful. And the TEI Consortium as a whole
is extremely interested in use cases, support, and education.
In addition to James's kind offer below, let me encourage you to pose
questions and ask for help both here and on TEI-l. You'll find that
colleagues are very interested in your implementation.
-dan
On Mon, 2008-01-28 at 01:51 +0000, James Cummings wrote:
> Timothy Hill wrote:
> > I'm currently working on some Latin-related webpages which I intend to mark up first in semantic
> > XML, and then transform into XHTML for web display.
> >
> > Does anyone know of an existing XML language developed to describe Latin (or Greek) texts in
> > grammatical terms? I think for this particular project very fine-grained markup (something like
> > <noun case='ablative' type='locative'> vel sim) would be appropriate - and I'd be very happy to find
> > a pre-existing vocabulary, rather than write mine from scratch.
>
> Hi Timothy,
>
> I think the problem with your query is that you specify XML markup languages
> developed specifically for Latin or Greek texts. Why should linguistic markup
> be different in Latin and Greek than any of the other similar (or indeed, more
> complex) languages? In fact, I'd argue that what you should be looking for is a
> markup language that is applicable across numerous human languages, and that
> this generality might be a good thing.
>
> There are many linguistic corpora, in all sorts of languages (ancient and
> modern) which use the Guidelines of the Text Encoding Initiative as their base
> for XML markup, such as the BNC. Moreover, there are existing programs to help
> search and analyse corpora with similar markup.
>
> The fine degree of granularity you wish (which seems to be pos,case,type?) can
> certainly be expressed in TEI XML. Although much of the information you'd want
> is spread throughout the Guidelines' 23 chapters[1], you may find the chapters
> on Language Corpora[2] and Simple Analytic Mechanisms[3] useful. In the latter
> case you might find its section on Linguistic Annotation[4] interesting.
>
> It seems beneficial to use established standards where applicable rather than
> reinvent the wheel. I'd be happy to discuss this further with you and give what
> advice I can if you desire. (As you are working in UK HE, we are part-funded by
> the AHDS, until it dies at the end of March, to provide best-effort advice to
> those under taking digital research projects in UK HE, advise on funding
> applications, etc.)
>
> Best wishes,
>
> -James
>
> [1] http://www.tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/index-toc.html
> [2] http://www.tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/CC.html
> [3] http://www.tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/AI.html
> [4] http://www.tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/AI.html#AILA
>
--
Daniel Paul O'Donnell, PhD
Associate Professor and Chair, Department of English
Director, Digital Medievalist Project http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/
Chair and CEO, Text Encoding Initiative http://www.tei-c.org/
University of Lethbridge
Lethbridge AB T1K 3M4
Canada
Vox: +1 403 329-2378
Fax: +1 403 382-7191
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