Three Ways to Enhance the Interoperability of Cross-References in TEI XML

Abstract

Systems are 'interoperable' if each can work with products of the other with minimal external intervention. Semantic interoperability (exchange of underlying meaning not just syntax) is the goal. Currently supported TEI cross-reference mechanisms are typically not interoperable without extensive human intervention. I offer three practical ways to make standard TEI cross-references more semantically interoperable. The first is the deployment of Canonical Text Services URNs. The second is informal agreements among communities to adopt shared Schematron rules. Both of these methods can be implemented right now; the barriers are practical not technical. The third method is stand-off markup based on the Text Alignment Network, a planned TEI-friendly XML format for the interchange of aligned texts.

Intertextual Pointers in the Text Alignment Network

“…But they are still just as cumbersome, opaque, and unreadable as the traditional pointers discussed above. And although they are syntactically interoperable, they are not semantically so (Kalvesmaki 2015). Nevertheless, it is admirable that we can pack so much into a single URN.…”

“…TEI allows many ways to represent a claim that work A passage x is a quotation of work B passage y. But any representation in TEI is almost guaranteed to be meaningless outside a given TEI file or project (Kalvesmaki 2015). TEI code requires both syntactic and semantic interpretation, and is not predictably applicable to other versions of the same work.…”