[tei-council] Chapter 9 - Dictionaries

[Syd Bauman]

> One important thing to understand is the role of <cit> in P5 as a  
> generic container for any linguistic quotation/example refined by  
> linguistic or biliographical information. 

But that's precisely what I'm getting at, Laurent. I just don't
understand why we expanded the semantics of <cit> to include this
usage. 


>   <cit type="translation" xml:lang="en">
>    <quote>remoulade</quote>
>    <quote>rémoulade</quote>
>    <def>dressing containing mustard and herbs</def>
>   </cit>

I'm afraid I don't quite understand what's going on, here. Of what is
this a translation?


> A more usual one is a translation that only applies in certain  
> grammatical or semantic circumstances:
>     <cit type="translation" xml:lang="fr">
>      <quote>habilleur</quote>
>      <gen>m</gen>
>     </cit>

OK, I understand completely why you would want to wrap a example
quotation (here <quote>) with some grammatical information (here
<gen>), but do not understand why <cit> is a good choice for this
task. (And in case I sound argumentative, I am *not* saying <cit> is
a bad choice -- since I don't understand it, I am not really in a
position to judge it.) I'm I just being dense? Am I the only one who
doesn't understand this?


> And a more elaborate one when an example is provided with its
> translation:
>   <cit type="example">
>     <quote>she's a stylish <oRef/>
>     </quote>
>     <cit type="translation" xml:lang="fr">
>      <quote>elle s'habille avec chic</quote>
>     </cit>
>    </cit>

Wow. So to ascertain what "elle's ..." is a translation of, I look at
its parent's sibling <quote>? Is that always the case?


> You see that <quote> is always used as default element for the
> phrase/ sentence, and would recommend this as good practices to
> guaranty some homogeneity of such linguistic elements all over a
> dictionary. 

Yes, this much makes sense to me.


> So let's avoid <eg> in any case, and try to use the cit/quote
> construction in a systematic way.

OK, but I can almost guarantee you that when I come up against my
next dictionary project (likely measured in months, not years, from
now), I'll be knocking on your door ...