Elements for basic TEI documents
This is more of a brief reference sheet than an exhaustive list of TEI elements: it is
intended to provide you with a way to look up the most commonly used elements, grouped
together for the exercises in which we’ll be encountering them. For detailed
information about the contents and semantics of these elements (and for other more arcane
elements), have a look at the TEI Guidelines.
Simple prose
- div
- A division of a text: for instance, an act, a chapter, a section, a poem, a
letter… Use the type attribute to indicate what kind of division.
- head
- The heading of a division: contains words and phrase-level encoding. head
may appear at the start of div, but also at the start of body,
front, back, list, and lg.
- p
- A prose paragraph: contains words and phrase-level encoding.
- list
- A list: contains a series of item elements.
- item
- An item in a list: contains an optional label followed by words and
phrase-level encoding, or a series of paragraphs.
- label
- The label of an item (e.g. a letter, number, or word indicating its order or other
facts about it): contains words and phrase-level encoding. Note that label can
also be the first element inside a paragraph.
- said
- Passages spoken aloud or thought, e.g. by a character on a novel
- quote
- Used to encode quotations from other sources; contains words and phrase-level
encoding.
Phrase-level encoding
- name
- Used to encode all kinds of names. If you want to distinguish between different
kinds of names, you can use the type attribute (e.g. name
type="person"). TEI also includes specific elements for different kinds of names
(e.g. persName) for projects that need more detailed encoding.
- date
- Used to encode dates. The when attribute can be used to encode a
regularized form of the date (e.g.
<date when="2001">The first year of the new century</date> or
<date when="2005-05-29">Sun, 29 May 05</date>).
- foreign
- Used for foreign-language words when no other element (e.g. quote) is
already present.
- distinct
- Used for linguistically distinct words (e.g. dialect words, regionally accented
words).
- mentioned
- Used for words which are mentioned but not used (for instance, for spelling or
definition purposes).
- term
- Used to encode specialized terminology; often associated with a gloss.
- emph
- Used to encode emphasized words or phrases.
- soCalled
- Used to encode (or express) authorial distance; e.g., phrases that were or should be
in scare quotes.
- hi
- Used to encode words or phrases which are highlighted for reasons which the encoder
either does not know or chooses not to analyse.
- q
- Used to encode passages surrounded by quotation marks, when you don’t want to bother
with a more precise element like said. Roughly the same as hi
rend="surrounded-with-quotation-marks".
Poetry
- lg
- A group of verse lines: contains one or more l elements.
- rhyme
- May be optionally used to specify the rhyme scheme of the line group.
- l
- A single verse line: contains words and phrase-level elements.
- met
- May be optionally used to specify the metrical pattern of the line.
- rhyme
- May be optionally used to indicate the portion of the metrical line that rhymes, and
with its label attribute which part of the rhyme scheme is in play.
Simple drama
- sp
- A dramatic speech
- speaker
- A speaker identification printed in the text
- stage
- A stage direction. The type attribute may be used to identify the kind of
stage direction; suggested values include:
- business
- costume
- delivery
- entrance
- exit
- location
- narrative
- novelistic
- castList
- A cast list in a dramatic text, listing the roles in the drama. It consists of one
or more castItem or castGroup elements.
- castGroup
- A grouping of related items in a cast list, containing one or more castItem
elements and an optional head and trailer.
- castItem
- An item in a cast list, containing a role and an optional roleDesc.
- role
- The name of a role in a cast list
- roleDesc
- The description of a role in a cast list
Text structure
- TEI
- The outermost (or root) element for any TEI P5 conformant
document. It groups together the TEI header and the document text. It must have the TEI
namespace specifed, and should have an xml:lang attribute, i.e. TEI
xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" xml:lang="en".
- teiHeader
- The wrapper for all of the document’s metadata. The elements that go
inside the TEI header are too numerous to list usefully here; see the templates for
details.
- text
- The wrapper element which contains all of the document’s content. The
text element is most often used for a single work (i.e. a single published
document, or a single aesthetic unit such as a play or a work of fiction). Terms like
single work and aesthetic unit need to be defined by the
individual project. A text element contains an optional front, a
mandatory body, and an optional back.
- front
- Contains the front matter of the document, if any: title pages, tables of contents,
introductory essays, and so forth. The front element contains an optional
titlePage and may be subdivided into div elements.
- body
- Contains the main body of the document, not including front matter and back matter.
The body element typically includes one or more div elements. It may
start with a head. (Think about where the head belongs—is
it the heading for the body, or the heading for the first division?)
- back
- Contains the back matter of the document, if any: indices, appendices, epilogues,
colophons, errata lists, etc. May be subdivided into div elements if necessary.
- group
- An element which groups together multiple text elements, with an optional
front and back.
Complex prose
- note
- A note (a footnote, endnote, marginal note, or inline note). Link the note to the
point where it’s anchored using xml:id and target.
note contains words and phrase-level encoding.
- anchor
- An anchor point, usually used as a place for some other element (such as a note) to
point to, using the anchor’s xml:id attribute.
- opener
- This element may appear at the start of a div, text,
front, or back, and it groups together the elements that appear at the
start of a letter or similar document: the date and place of writing (using
dateLine, and the salutation to the person being addressed (using
salute).
- closer
- Very similar to opener, but located at the end of the div instead
of at the beginning.
- trailer
- This element is used for things that come at the very end of the document or
section, such as The End.
- dateline
- Used within opener and closer to encode the date and place of
writing. Contains words and phrase-level encoding.
- salute
- Used within opener and closer to encode the salutation to the
person being addressed (e.g. Dear Sir, or I remain faithfully
yours…). Contains words and phrase-level encoding.
- signed
- Used within closer to encode the signature or name of the person writing.
Contains words and phrase-level encoding.
- postscript
- Used to encode a postscript, e.g. of a letter.
- bibl
- Used to encode bibliographical references, either in a list (using
listBibl) or in running prose.
Alternative Encodings
- choice
- Groups together two or more alternate encodings of a phrase-level passage, using the
elements listed below.
- abbr
- An abbreviation; may be used alone or, when inside choice, in combination
with expan which holds an expanded reading.
- expan
- The expanded reading of an abbreviation; typically used inside choice, in
combination with abbr which holds the corresponding abbreviated reading. Rarely
used alone.
- sic
- A typographical error or oddity in the original; may be used alone or, when inside
choice, in combination with corr, which holds a corrected reading.
- corr
- A corrected reading of a typographical error or oddity in the original; may be used
alone or, when inside choice, in combination with sic, which holds the
original reading.
- orig
- An unmodernized reading in the original; may be used alone or, when inside
choice, in combination with reg, which holds a regularized reading.
- reg
- A modernization of a reading in the original; may be used alone or, when inside
choice, in combination with orig, which holds the corresponding
unmodernized reading.
Manuscripts and Encoding Physical Documents
- pb
- An empty element which marks the break between one page and another. By convention,
information stored in the attributes of pb refer to the page that
follows the break. Equivalent to milestone unit="page".
- lb
- An empty element which marks a typographical line break. Equivalent to
milestone unit="line".
- cb
- An empty element which marks the break between one column and the next. Equivalent
to milestone unit="column".
- milestone
- An empty element which marks a boundary point in the text according to some standard
reference system, such as signatures, scrolls, leaves. Use the unit attribute
to indicate the reference system whose units are being marked at this point.
- add
- A handwritten addition. The hand attribute indicates the handwriting in
which the addition is made. This attribute contains an identifier which points to a
hand element in the profileDesc of the TEI header; this
hand element contains an extended description of the handwriting, ink, and
other details.
- addSpan
- An empty element which marks the starting point for a handwritten addition that
either is too long to be encoded with add, or overlaps an element boundary. Its
spanTo attribute points to an anchor element which marks the
endpoint of the added material. The hand attribute indicates the handwriting
in which the addition is made (see above for details).
- del
- A deletion. The hand attribute indicates the handwriting in which the
addition is made (see above for details).
- delSpan
- An empty element which marks the starting point for a deletion that is either too
long to be encoded with del or that overlaps an element boundary. Its
spanTo attribute points to an anchor element which marks the
endpoint of the deleted material. The hand attribute indicates the
handwriting in which the deletion is made (see above for details).
- handShift
- An empty element which marks the boundary point at which a change of handwriting
takes place. Its new attribute indicates the handwriting that begins at the
point being marked. The new attribute functions just like the hand
attribute, in pointing to a hand element in the TEI header, which provides
detailed information on the handwriting in question.
Transcriptional complexities
- supplied
- Indicates that a given word or passage cannot be read in the original and is being
supplied (either through editorial judgment or from some other textual source).
- unclear
- Indicates that a given word or passage is unclear, but not entirely illegible
(expresses uncertainty rather than absolute lack of information); multiple alternative
readings may be grouped in a choice element.
- damage
- A damaged portion of the original text; the type attribute allows you to
classify the damage, and the extent attribute allows you to indicate the
extent of the damage.
- gap
- A gap in the original text (either from damage, deletion, excerption, or some other
cause). The desc child element provides a description of what is missing, and
the reason attribute provides the reason for the omission.
- subst
- Combines an addition and a deletion so that the add is understood as being
a substitution for the del.
- restore
- Indicates restoration of text to an earlier state by cancellation of a marking or
instruction; in particular, useful to indicate that a deletion was restored, e.g. by the notation
stet.
- app
- Contains one entry in a critical apparatus, with an optional lemma and at least one
reading.
- rdg
- A single reading, e.g. from a particular witness.
- lem
- The reading from the base text.
Attributes
- xml:id
- Provides a unique identifier for this particular element, thus allowing other
elements to point to it (using their target, next,
prev, etc.).
- n
- Provides a label or identifier for this particular element, not necessarily unique.
- target
- Provides a URI (e.g.
http://bauman.zapto.org/gallery/Niagara_Falls_2008-01/2008_01_07T16_35_39
or #sect08) that points to either another document or an element within an
XML document (including the current one).
- next and prev
- Allow what is logically a single text object (e.g. a quotation) to be encoded as a
series of two or more discrete XML elements, as a work-around for overlap problems.
These attributes represent the connections between these fragmentary elements, by
pointing to a prior or subsequent element in the chain of fragments. They do so by
referring to that element’s xml:id value. That is, if
next is specified on a said element, then its value should be a hash
mark (#) followed by the value of the xml:id of another
said element, the one that is the next part of the spoken passage. For example,
<said xml:id="s01" next="#s02">Hey</said>, he said,
<said xml:id="s02" prev="#s01">What's up?</said>
- xml:lang
- Used to indicate the language of an element’s content. Its value conforms
to BCP 47 (a standard system for defining language codes). For information on how BCP 47
codes are constructed, see the note in the data.language documentation. Some sample values for the xml:lang
attribute are:
| English |
en |
| French |
fr |
| German |
de |
| Italian |
it |
| Latin |
la |
| Arabic as spoken in Iraq |
ar-IQ |
| Chinese |
zh |
| simplified Chinese |
zh-Hans |
| Taiwanese |
zh-TW |
If further explanation is required, a language element with an
ident attribute of the same BCP 47 code can be specified in the TEI header.