Guidelines for Electronic Text Encoding and Interchange (TEI P3)

6.4.1: Referring Strings

A referring string is a phrase which refers to some person, place, object etc. Two elements are provided to mark such strings:

<rs>

contains a general purpose name or referring string. Attributes include:
- indicates more specifically the object referred to by the referencing string. Values might include ``person'', ``place'', ``ship'', ``element'' etc.
<name>
contains a proper noun or noun phrase. Attributes include:
- indicates the type of the object which is being named by the phrase.

Where it is thought useful to do so, the kind of object referred to may be specified using the type attribute.

Examples include:

<q>My dear <rs type=person>Mr. Bennet</rs>, </q>
said his lady to him one day, <q>have you heard
that <rs type=place>Netherfield Park</rs> is let
at last?</q>

Collectors of water-rents were appointed by the
<rs type=organization>Watering Committee</rs>.
They were paid a commission not exceeding four per
cent, and gave bond.

 
It being one of the principles of the
<rs type=org>Circumlocution Office</rs> never, on any
account whatsoever, to give a straightforward answer,
<rs type=person>Mr Barnacle</rs> said, <q>Possibly.</q>

As the following example shows, the <rs> element may be used for any reference to a person, place, etc., not only to references in the form of a proper noun or noun phrase.

<q>My dear <rs type=person>Mr. Bennet</rs>,</q>
said <rs type=person>his lady</rs> to him
one day...

The <name> element by contrast is provided for the special case of referencing strings which consist only of proper nouns; it may be used synonymously with the <rs> element, or nested within it if a referring string contains a mixture of common and proper nouns. The following example shows an alternative way of encoding the short sentence from Pride and Prejudice quoted above:

<q>My dear <name type=person>Mr. Bennet</name>,</q>
said <rs type=person>his lady</rs> to him one day,
<q>have you heard that <name type=place>Netherfield
Park</name> is let at last?</q>

The following example shows how a proper name may be nested within a referring string:

<rs>His Excellency the Life President,
<name>Ngwazi Dr H. Kamuzu Banda</name></rs>
<!-- ... -->

Simply tagging something as a name is generally not enough to enable automatic processing of personal names into the canonical forms usually required for reference purposes. The name as it appears in the text may be inconsistently spelled, partial, or vague. Moreover, name prefixes such as van or de la, may or may not be included as part of the reference form of a name, depending on the language and country of origin of the bearer.

The following attributes, common to all members of the names element class, are provided to help overcome these difficulties:

key

provides an alternative identifier for the object being named, such as a database record key.
reg
gives a normalized or regularized form of the name used.

Either or both of these attributes may be specified, as appropriate. The key attribute may be useful as a means of gathering together all references to the same individual or location scattered throughout a document:

<q>My dear <rs type=person key=BENM1>Mr. Bennet</rs>,
</q> said <rs type=person key=BENM2>his lady</rs>
to him one day, <q>have you heard that
<rs type=place key=NETP1>Netherfield Park</rs>
is let at last?</q>

This use should be distinguished from the case of the reg (regularization) attribute, which provides a means of marking the standard form of a referencing string as demonstrated below:

My personal life during the administration of
<rs type=person key=POJA1 reg='Polk, James K.'>Col. Polk</rs>
has but poorly compensated me for the suspended
enjoyments and pursuits of private and professional spheres

<name type=person key=VOM1 reg='Volanges, Mme de'>
Mme. de Volanges</name>
marie sa fille: c'est encore un secret; mais elle m'en
a fait part hier.

<name type=person key=WADLM1 reg='de la Mare, Walter'>
Walter de la Mare
</name>
was born at
<name key=Ch1 type=place>Charlton</name>, in
<name key=KT1 type=county>Kent</name>, in 1873.

<name type=place>Montaillou</name> is not a large parish.
At the time of the events which led to
<name type=person reg='Benedict XII, Pope of Avignon
(Jacques Fournier)'>Fournier's</name> investigations,
the local population consisted of between 200 and
250 inhabitants.

This method is adequate for many simple applications. For more complex applications, such as onomastics, or wherever a detailed analysis of the component parts of a name is needed, the specialized elements described in chapter 20, Names and Dates or the analytical tools described in chapter 16, Feature Structures should be used.

These elements are formally declared as follows:

<!-- 6.4.1:  Proper Nouns                                     -->
<!ELEMENT name          - -  (%phrase.seq;)                     >
<!ATTLIST name               %a.global;
                             %a.names;
          type               CDATA               #IMPLIED       >
<!ELEMENT rs            - -  (%phrase.seq)                      >
<!ATTLIST rs                 %a.global;
                             %a.names;
          type               CDATA               #IMPLIED       >
<!-- This fragment is used in sec. 6.12                       -->

Part 2: Core Tags and General Rules

6: Elements Available in All TEI Documents

6.4: Names, Numbers, Dates, Abbreviations, and Addresses

6.4.1: Referring Strings