Constraints such as Use the element to contain paragraphs, not pages or use for names of places, for names of people, and for any other name are much less easy to check automatically, since they relate to the semantics of the content rather than its organization. Rules of this kind are easily checked by an automatic processor (a validator). A schema makes it possible to express constraints such as elements may appear within elements or every element must contain at least one. How should you communicate the particular TEI encoding choices you have made to others so that such integration remains possible?ĢThe TEI provides a way of adressing these concerns, as well as satisfying the important need for detailed project-specific documentation, by providing a set of elements which can be used both to specify a schema in terms of the names and formal properties of the elements and attributes it contains and also to document the way those elements and attributes are used in a given application.ģThe notion of a schema is fundamental to XML: it provides a kind of document grammar, naming the possible components and constraining the organization of an XML document. How should you go about choosing just the parts of the TEI you need? One major motivation for creating TEI documents in the first place is the possibility of sharing them with others, and integrating them with other TEI documents. Almost no-one needs everything defined by the TEI, yet every one of its elements is of use or interest to someone.

It can be used to provide additional annotations and metadata of all kinds. It can be used for enriched encodings in which many aspects of such texts are made explicit, so that software of all kinds can operate upon them, from visualisation tools and digital publishing systems to specialised statistical analysis packages.

It can be used for a simple reading-oriented transcription of a primary source, whether that be an authorial manuscript, a printed literary work, an audio broadcast, or a dictionary. 1As we have seen, the TEI is designed to support a very wide range of encoding choices.

Text encoding initiative tei