Georg Vogeler discusses various approaches to encoding information about entities mentioned in text, such as people, places, and events, using semantic technologies like RDF. These include using TEI elements like <relation> and <graph> to represent relationships, embedding RDFa annotations directly in TEI documents, and reifying text content as formal assertions. Vogeler also outlines existing projects that link TEI texts to external data sources or knowledge bases to represent implicit or explicit graphs derived from the text.

1. Encoding Text About Things
Georg Vogeler
Centre for Information Modelling
University of Graz
@GVogeler
Institut für Dokumentologie und Editorik e.V.

2. What‘s in a text? (eh)
• Semiotic triangle

3. What‘s in a text? (eh)
• Semiotic triangle
• Information as a result of text interpretation:
I = i (D, S, t) (Langefors 1995)
• Multiple notion of text (Sahles text wheel)

4. The Textwheel
(Patrick Sahle: Digitale Editionsformen, 2013)
TEXTS
text as idea, intention, meaning, semantics, sense, content
text as linguistic
code, as series of
words, as speech
text as document:
physical, material,
individual
text as a visual object, as
a complex sign
TEXTG
text as a version of ..., as a set of graphs, graphemes, glyphs,
characters, etc. (... having modes ...)
text as a work, as rhetoric
structure

5. ChartEx
408. Grant by Thomas son of Josce goldsmith
and citizen of York to his younger son Jeremy of
half his land lying in length from Petergate at
the churchyard of St. Peter to houses of the
prebend of Ampleford and in breadth from
Steyngate to land which mag. Simon de
Evesham inhabited; paying Thomas and his
heirs 1d. or [a pair of] white gloves worth 1 d. at
Christmas. Warranty. Seal.
from the Vicars Choral collecEon, University of York) , here:
http://chartex.org/docs/Chartex-Paris-14112013.pdf

6. http://chartex.org/docs/Chartex-Paris-14112013.pdf

7. Text – Assertion
XML/TEI
• markup
• sequence
• mixed content
• vocabulary made by
humanists
RDF
• Assertion as simple
sentence
• First order logics
• Graph model
• vocabularies still to be
made by humanists

8. Referencing from text
to formal assertion means ...
• text as proof/reference for formal assertion
• formal assertion as annotation to text
• formal assertion extracted from text
It‘s worth it!

9. Talking about the world in TEI
„Gleim ist mit dem Battalion Garde nach Breßlau
ausgerückt und schreibt sehr heitere Briefe.“
(Gleim has left with the Battalion Guardes to Breßlau and writes very serene letters.)
<p><persName ref="#Gleim">Gleim</persName> ist mit
dem <orgName ref="#ex:BattalionGarde">Battalion
Garde</orgName> nach <placeName
ref="#Bresslau">Breßlau</placeName> ausgerückt und
schreibt sehr heitere Briefe.</p>
<listPerson>
<person xml:id="Gleim">
<idno type="viaf">61617445</idno>
</person>
</listPerson>

10. But
<p>Gleim ist mit dem Battalion Garde nach
Breßlau ausgerückt und schreibt sehr heitere
Briefe.</p>
=>
• Gleim is part of Battalion Guardes
• Battalion Garde marches to Breßlau
• Gleim writes letters, which are serene.

11. Some Existing Approaches
• CLAROS (http://www.clarosnet.org , Rahtz 2011)
– ODD/XSLT-based
• Symogih (http://symogih.org/, Beretta 2015) , Basel
accounts (http://gams.uni-graz.at/srbas, Vogeler 2016)
– @ana, tei:taxonomy
– XSLT
• Jewell 2010
– tei:sp
– RDFa/XSLT based
• SAWS (http://www.ancientwisdoms.ac.uk/, Jordanous
et al. 2012)
– tei:relation
– Xpath and @xml:id to reference the text parts

12. Implicit Graphs
• @ref
• (person|place|event)/*
• XML hierarchy in general
e.g.
– metadata like teiHeader, msDesc
– element/attribute-relationship)

13. Express Graphs in TEI
• <relation> for the relationship between URIs in
@active, @passive, @type
– no literals (coverd by the definition of <desc>?)
• <graph>?
– verbose (graph, arc, node)
– description of graphs in copy text, thus not restricted
to RDF rules
– again: literals are only encoded as subelements of a
graph

14. Embedded Graph: RDFa
• type:
– @typeOf
• subject:
– document-uri()
– @resource
• predicate:
– @property
• object:
– @resource
– @href
– @src
• type:
– @type
• subject:
– document-uri()
– @ref
• predicate:
– @ana?
• object:
– @ref
– @target
– @url

15. RDFa
<p xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<span resource="GND:Gleim">Gleim ist mit dem <span
property="ex:isPartOf"
resource="ex:BattalionGarde">Battallion Garde nach <span
property="ex:marchTo" resource="geo:Wrocław
">Breßlau</span> ausgerückt</span> und schreibt <span
property="ex:writes" resource="_:Briefe">sehr <span
property="emotionalQuality"
resource="emotions:Serene">heitere</span>
Briefe</span></span></p>

16. TEIa?
<p xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" >
<seg resource="GND:Gleim">Gleim ist mit dem <seg
property="ex:isPartOf"
resource="ex:BattalionGarde">Battallion Garde nach <seg
property="ex:marchTo" resource="geo:Wrocław
">Breßlau</seg> ausgerückt</seg> und schreibt <seg
property="ex:writes" resource="_:Briefe">sehr <seg
property="emotionalQuality"
resource="emotions:Serene">heitere</seg>
Briefe</seg></seg></p>

17. TEIa?
<p xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0">
<seg ref="GND:Gleim">Gleim ist mit dem <seg
ana="ex:isPartOf" ref="ex:BattalionGarde">Battallion Garde
nach <seg ana="ex:marchTo"
ref="geo:Wrocław">Breßlau</seg> ausgerückt</seg> und
schreibt <seg ana="ex:writes" ref="_:Briefe">sehr <seg
ana="emotionalQuality"
ref="emotions:Serene">heitere</seg>
Briefe</seg></seg></p>

18. TEIa?
<p xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" >
<seg ref="GND:Gleim">Gleim ist mit dem <seg
ana="ex:isPartOf" ref="ex:BattalionGarde">Battallion Garde
nach <seg ana="ex:marchTo"
ref="geo:Wrocław">Breßlau</seg> ausgerückt</seg> und
schreibt <seg ana="ex:writes" ref="_:Briefe">sehr <seg
ana="emotionalQuality"
ref="emotions:Serene">heitere</seg>
Briefe</seg></seg></p>

19. TEIa?
<p xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" ><rs
ref="GND:Gleim">Gleim
ist mit dem <rs ana="ex:isPartOf"
ref="ex:BattalionGarde">Battallion Garde nach
<rs ana="ex:marchTo"
ref="geo:Wrocław">Breßlau</rs> ausgerückt</rs>
und schreibt <rs ana="ex:writes"
ref="_:Briefe">sehr <rs ana="emotionalQuality"
ref="emotions:Serene">heitere</rs>
Briefe</rs></rs></p>

20. TEIa ?
<p xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" ><seg corresp="#psn-
1"><persName xml:id="psn-1"
ref="GND:Gleim">Gleim</persName> ist mit dem <seg
ana="ex:isPartOf" corresp="#rs-1"><rs xml:id="rs-1"
ref="ex:ex:BattalionGarde">Battallion Garde</rs> nach <seg
ana="ex:ex:marchTo" corresp="#rs-2"><rs xml:id="rs-2"
ref="geo:Wrocław">Breßlau</rs> ausgerückt und schreibt <seg
ana="ex:schreibt" corresp="#ptr-1"> <ptr xml:id="ptr-1"
target="_:Briefe"/>sehr <seg ana="ex:emotionalQuality"
corresp="#ptr-2"> <ptr xml:id="ptr-2"
target="emotions:Serene">heitere</seg>
Briefe</seg></seg></seg></p>

21. Reification
<p ana=“rdf:Statement”><persName ana="rdf:subject"
ref="GND:Gleim">Gleim</persName> ist mit dem <seg
ana="rdf:predicate" type=“ex:isPartOf"><rs ana="rdf:object"
ref="#ex:BattalionGarde">Battalion Garde</rs><anchor
ana="rdf:predicate" type=“ex:marchesTo“/> nach <placeName
ana="rdf:object" ref="geo:Wrocław">Breßlau</placeName>
ausgerückt</seg> und <seg ana="rdf:predicate"
type=“ex:writes">schreibt sehr <seg ana="rdf:object"
type=“_:Briefe"><seg ana="rdf:predicate"
type="ex:emotionalQuality"><seg ana="rdf:object"
type="emotions:Serene">heitere</seg></seg>
Briefe</seg></seg></p>.

22. Reification?
<p ana=“rdf:Statement”><persName ana="rdf:subject"
ref="GND:Gleim">Gleim</persName> ist mit dem <seg
ana="rdf:predicate" type="ex:isPartOf"><rs
ana="rdf:object rdf:subject"
ref="#ex:BattalionGarde">Battalion Garde</rs><anchor
ana="rdf:predicate" type=“ex:marchesTo“/> nach <placeName
ana="rdf:object" ref="geo:Wrocław">Breßlau</placeName>
ausgerückt</seg> und <seg ana="rdf:predicate"
type=“ex:write">schreibt sehr <seg ana="rdf:object"
type=“_:Briefe"><seg ana="rdf:predicate"
type="ex:emotionalQuality"><segmana="rdf:object"
type="emotions:Serene">heitere</seg></seg>
Briefe</seg></seg></p>.

23. Encoding Text About Things:
Propositions
TEXTS
TEXTG
tei:relation
reification
RDFa/TEIa

24. Encoding Text About Things:
Propositions
Georg Vogeler
georg.vogeler@uni-graz.at
Institut für Dokumentologie und Editorik e.V.
Plague-spot?
Soap bubble?
Beauty mark?

25. References
• Jewell, Michael O. (2010): Semantic Screenplays: Preparing TEI for Linked Data, paper at the
DH2010 (http://dh2010.cch.kcl.ac.uk/academic-programme/abstracts/papers/html/ab-
878.html#d760e868)
• Rahtz, Sebastian (2011), Realistic targets in TEI to RDF, http://tei.oucs.ox.ac.uk/Talks/2011-10-
teimm/talk.xml
• Jordanous, Anna, Alan Stanley and Charlotte Tupman (2012). “Contemporary transformation of
ancient documents for recording and retrieving maximum information: when one form of markup is
not enough.” Presented at Balisage: The Markup Conference 2012, Montréal, Canada, August 7 -
10, 2012. In Proceedings of Balisage: The Markup Conference 2012. Balisage Series on Markup
Technologies, vol. 8 (2012). doi:10.4242/BalisageVol8.Jordanous01.
• Eide, Øyvind , „Ontologies, Data Modeling, and TEI“, Journal of the Text Encoding Initiative [Online],
Issue 8 | December 2014 - December 2015, Online since 01 January 2015, connection on 28
September 2016. URL : http://jtei.revues.org/1191 ; DOI : 10.4000/jtei.1191
• Langefors, B. (1995). Essays on Infology. Lund: Studentliteratur.
• Images and Logos from Microsoft Office clipart collection, https://www.w3.org/html/,
http://www.tei-c.org/index.xml , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_of_reference