Meaning and interpretation of markup

• Claus Huitfeldt (Universitetet i Bergen)
• Allen Renear (University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign)
• David Dubin (University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign)

• C. M. Sperberg-McQueen

• semantic annotation of schemas
• ontology mapping problems
• semantic extraction, semantic stores
  • translation / improved translation into RDF
  • translation / improved translation into topic maps

• What is ‘meaning’?
• Are there universal rules governing the meaning of markup?
• Are there common patterns observable in practice?
• How can we document whether / the degree to which a transformation preserves / loses meaning?

• What else can tags like chapter, name, person, abbr mean?
• Why else do we guide our processing by the markup?
• How else can we argue over whether a given tagging is correct or incorrect?

• artificial vocabularies, meaning specified and documented by designer
• (or inferred and documented by data receiver)
• not* the same as natural-language meaning: cf.

  "John" is a personal name.
  John loves Mary.

• vocabulary-specific

• possible synonymy: cf.

  <sic corr="receive">recieve</sic>
  <corr sic="recieve">receive</corr>

• ambiguity* rather rare*
• vagueness* / generality / variable detail not uncommon
• predicate calculus truth-functional; markup can be performative or prescriptive
• markup sometimes self-referential

• inter-translation among vocabularies
• retrieval across (or within) vocabularies
• comparison of content
• authenticity checking
• finding relevant vocabularies
• complexity measurement / design

• what inferences are licensed by each element type?
• by each attribute?
• for each location? (i.e. how do you associate the meaning with a particular instance?)

<R>96</R><sec>
<s>Kann man aber <d>wirklich</d> so leben 
da&szlig; das Leben auf&shy;h&ouml;rt
problematisch zu sein?</s>
...
</sec>

<s>Ich beschreibe <p.em><p.em.el><uw1>eine<el>n</el> 
<d>Tatsache</d></uw1> <i>Sachverhalt</i> doch nicht 
<imw>dadurch</imw> da&szlig; ich das erw&auml;hne was 
mit ih<p.o><p.o.el>r</p.o.el><p.o.el>m</p.o.el></p.o> 
nichts zu tun hat &amp; 
<p.trsn><p.trsn.el>c</p.trsn.el><p.trsn.el>k</p.trsn.el
></p.trsn>onstatiere da&szlig; ...</s> 

• Rules are vocabulary-specific.
• The coding <F>a</F> is both visually and semantically parallel to Fa
• Definition of F to be provided ...
• In many cases, the relevant property has arity > 1: F(a,b), F(a,b,c), ...
• As a consequence:
  • We need deixis.
  • Argument structure is crucial.

node(n8365).
node(n8366). 
...
gi(n8365,s).
gi(n8374,d).
gi(n8375,'#pcdata').
gi(n8377,i).
gi(n8378,'#pcdata').
...
content(n8366,"Ich beschreibe ").
content(n8375,"Tatsache").
content(n8378,"Sachverhalt").
...
first_child(n8365,n8365).
first_child(n8367,n8368).
...
nsib(n8357,n8365).
nsib(n8365,n8367).
...
parent(n8365,n8357).
...

char(c174832, 'T', 174832).
char(c174833, 'a', 174833).
char(c174834, 't', 174834). 
char(c174835, 's', 174835). 
char(c174836, 'a', 174836). 
char(c174837, 'c', 174837). 
char(c174838, 'h', 174838). 
char(c174839, 'e', 174839). 
deleted(c174832).
deleted(c174833).
deleted(c174834). ...

purchase_order(p123).
po_shippingaddress(p123,a45).
po_billingaddress(p123,a46).

relation_applies(shipto,[p123,a45]).
relation_applies(billto,[p123,a46]).

<doc>
 <code-version>mecs102</code-version> 
 <group>Manuscripts</group> 
 <group>B&#x3A3;nde</group> 
 <catno>108</catno> 
 <ti>Band IV Philosophische Bemerkungen</ti> 
 <crncopy>10</crncopy> 
 <datfrom>19291213</datfrom> 
 <datto>19300809</datto> 
 <transcribers>Claus Huitfeldt 1984, Alois Pichler 1991</transcribers> 
 <proofreaders>Ole Letnes 1992</proofreaders> 
 <revisionhistory>Transcribed by Claus Huitfeldt July 1984 &#x2010; 
  February 1985. Recoded from CT I to CT IIb by Claus Huitfeldt 
  881002. Recoded from NWP to WAB registration standard 911031; 
  recoded from mecs101 to mecs102 920212. Retranscribed by Alois 
  Pichler 1991. Special notations, Protocols und Typography M&#xE4;rz 
  1992. Erste Korrektur Ole Letnes April bis Juni 1992. Vergleich mit 
  dem Original Herbst 1992; korrigiert nach diesem Vergleich September 
  1995. Spellcheck by Maria Sollohub and Alois Pichler,
  September 1995.</revisionhistory> 
 <hands>H1, H2</hands> 
 ...
 </doc>

• replace names with variables
• describe the conditions under which the conclusion is valid
• wrap the conditional in variable bindings

(∀ n : node) (∀ m : node) 
(∀ i : item) (∀ s : string)
  (gi(n,'transcribers') & contents(n,s) 
  & root(n,m) & transcribes(m,i)
  ⇒ (∃ p : persons)
    (transcribes_as(p, i, m) 
    & nl_describes(s, p)))

<attribute match="@lang">
<doc>
<p>If an element has a <ident>lang</ident> 
attribute, the attribute value names the 
language of the element's content (unless 
overridden).</p>
</doc>
<rule distributed="true" lang="Prolog">
lang(<de xv="../@id"/>,.) :- !.
</rule>
<doc>
<p>Otherwise, the language is the same as that 
of the parent element.</p>
</doc>
<rule distributed="false" lang="Prolog">
lang(E,L) :- parent(P,E), lang(P,L).
</rule>
</attribute>

<hi rend="gothic">And this Indenture 
further witnesseth</hi> that the said
<hi rend="italic">Walter Shandy</hi>,
merchant, in consideration of the said
intended marriage ...

  <p><hi rend="gothic">And</hi> 
  <hi rend="gothic">this</hi> 
  <hi rend="gothic">Indenture</hi> 
  <hi rend="gothic">further</hi> 
  <hi rend="gothic">witnesseth</hi> that the said
  <hi rend="italic">Walter Shandy</hi>,
  merchant, in consideration of the said
  intended marriage ... </P>

  <P>Reader, I married him.</P>

<doc lang="en">
<p>Wittgenstein wrote:
<q lang="de"><ital>Die Welt ist alles,
was der Fall ist.</ital></q>
It is hard to escape, at first reading,
the suspicion that Wittgenstein is guilty
here of a gross platitude; it is only
after reading the rest of the
<title lang="la">Tractatus</title> that on returning
to its famous first sentence one appreciates
the depths of its intension.</p>
</doc>

• the element
• its ancestors

(there exists x)
  (bib_item(x) 
  & bibl_item_desc(x,[[.]]) 
  & (∀ y)(bibl_item_desc(y,[[.]]) ↔ x = y))

title(.) 
& (∀ x)
  (bibl_item_desc(x, [[ancestor::bibl]]) 
    → bib_item_title(x,[[.]])]

• the element (in this encoding)
• the text (= this rule asserts that in the text there is some (component?) part which is represented by this XML element in this encoding, and that that component has some property.
• some referent of the text
• some other encoding or representation of the text
• the words or characters contained* (except for notes, etc.) within this element (but N.B. deletions, insertions)

• the element (This TEI header was last updated 2001-06-15.)
• the text (This work [i.e. Peer Gynt] was created in 1874)
• some referent of the text (Henrik Ibsen was born in ...)
• the words or characters contained in this element (The string "Ibsen" is a proper noun here — not the name element)
• some other encoding or representation of the text (A page-break occurs at this point in the edition of 1874)

char(c174832, 'T', 174832).
char(c174833, 'a', 174833).
char(c174834, 't', 174834). 
...
deleted(c174832).
deleted(c174833).
deleted(c174834). ...

deletion(d342, c174832, c174839).

• the manuscript
• the transcription
• pages
• text blocks (main block, left margin, ...)
• characters

• the von Wright catalog and its entries
• words and sentences as described by Duden
• people
• dates
• MECS-WIT version numbers

• sections
• revisions
• acts of deletion
• insertions
• formulae
• quotations
• names, dates, things, ...