Transcription and Critical Apparatus - TEI @ Oxford

71 Pages·2009·0.35 MB·English

Transcriptionofprimarysources CriticalApparatus
Transcription and Critical Apparatus
JamesCummings
April2009
Transcriptionofprimarysources CriticalApparatus
Transcription of primary sources
Inmostcaseswhencreatinganelectronicedition,theprimary
sourcefromwhichitorignatesmayhavecertaintextual
phenomena. Forexample:
• Textwhichisabbreviationsand/orexpanded
• Editorialcorrectionandconjecture
• Scribaladditions,deletions,substitutions,orrestorations
• Textwhichaneditorsuppliesorintentionallyomits
• Textwhichisdamagedorillegible
Transcriptionofprimarysources CriticalApparatus
Transcribable features
Whichfeaturesofaprimarysourcesmightonewanttoincludeina
transcription?
• variantletterforms
• pagelayout
• orthography
• capitalisation
• worddivision
• punctuation
• abbreviations
• additionsanddeletions
• errorsandomissions
• regularizations
Transcriptionofprimarysources CriticalApparatus
Elements defined for transcription work
Definedin'core'module: abbraddchoicecorrdelexpangapsic
Definedin'transcr'module: addSpanamdamagedamageSpan
delSpanexfacsimilefwhandNoteshandShiftrestore
spacesubstsuppliedsurfacezone
Transcriptionofprimarysources CriticalApparatus
<choice> reminder
• <choice>(groupsalternativeeditorialencodings)
• Abbreviation:
• <abbr>(abbreviatedform)
• <expan>(expandedform)
• Errors:
• <sic>(apparenterror)
• <corr>(correctederror)
• Regularization:
• <orig>(originalform)
• <reg>(regularizedform)
Transcriptionofprimarysources CriticalApparatus
Abbreviation
Abbreviationsarehighlycharacteristicofmanuscriptmaterialsof
allkinds. WesternMSStraditionallydistinguish:
Suspensions thefirstletterorlettersofthewordarewritten,
generallyfollowedbyapoint,orothermarker: for
examplee.g. forexemplagratia
Contractions bothfirstandlastlettersarewritten,generallywith
someothermarkofabbreviationsuchasasuperscript
stroke,or,lesscommonly,apointorpoints: e.g. Mr.
forMister
Brevigraphs Specialsignsortittels,suchastheTironiannotaused
for‘et’,theletterpwithabarredtailcommonlyused
forper,thelettercwithacircumflexusedforcum(ĉ)
etc.
Superscripts Superscriptletters(vowelsorconsonants)areoften
usedtoindicatevariouskindsofcontraction: e.g. w
followedbysuperscriptchforwhich.
Transcriptionofprimarysources CriticalApparatus
Abbreviation and Expansion
Amanuscriptabbreviationmaybeviewedintwoways:
• Onemaytranscribeitasaparticularsequenceoflettersor
marksuponthepage: thus,a‘pwithabarthroughthe
descender’,a‘superscripthook’,a‘macron’
• Onemayalsointerprettheabbreviationintermsoftheletter
orlettersitisseenasstandingfor: thus,‘per’,‘re’,‘n'
Bothoftheseviewsareabletoberecordedsimultaneouslybythe
TEI
Transcriptionofprimarysources CriticalApparatus
Two Levels of Encoding Abbreviations
TEIproposestwolevelsofencoding:
• thewholeofanabbreviatedwordandthewholeofits
expansion: <abbr>and<expan>
• abbreviatorysignsorcharactersandthe‘invisible’characters
theyimply: <am>and<ex>
Transcriptionofprimarysources CriticalApparatus
<ex> and <am>
Usingtheseelements,fromthe'transcr'module,atranscribermay
indicatethestatusoftheindividuallettersorsignswithinboththe
abbreviationandtheexpansion.
• <ex>(editorialexpansion)containsasequenceofletters
addedbyaneditorortranscriberwhenexpandingan
abbreviation.
• <am>(abbreviationmarker)containsasequenceoflettersor
signspresentinanabbreviationwhichareomittedorreplaced
intheexpandedformoftheabbreviation.
Previously,peoplehavere-purposedexistingelementssuchas
<hi>and<supplied>tomarkindividualletters/signsin
abbreviationsandexpansions. ThenewP5elements<am>and
<ex>aretheTEI'sattempttosupportthisdesire.
Transcriptionofprimarysources CriticalApparatus
Brevigraph Example
TheOldIcelandicword‘hann’(‘he’)isusuallywrittenasa
brevigraphinmedievalmanuscripts,combiningtheletterhwitha
horizontalstrokerepresentingnasalisation(Unicodecharacter
0305,functionallysimilartothemoderntilde). Itlookslikethis: