Blue Book
These guidelines are a record of encoding decisions made in order to A) deal with the special requirements of the Blue Book, and B) move the WWA to the TEI P5 guidelines. We are only recording on this page what encoding we are using that is different than the encoding used within the standard Whitman Encoding Guidelines
Use of <subst>
Acknowledging that the WWA use of <app> is hinky, we are embracing the new <subst> element within P5. Like <app>, we are using <subst> to record when Whitman made revisions--usually with combinations of additions and deletions--to replace one piece of written text with new text. Also like <app>, you cannot insert a <subst> within a <subst>.
In order to record the different readings, we are using the "seq" attribute on the <add> and <del> tags. Here are a few rules:
- We only use the "seq" attribute on the elements that are children of <subst>; no "seq" is used on elements that are descendants.
- A "seq" attribute is required on all children of <subst>
- The value of "seq" is a number, and the numbering reflects the order of readings, or the different versions of the line in the interpreted order it was written.
- <subst> is only used when it can validate, that is, not cross tag boundaries. That means that large-scale substitutions are noted through use of <addSpan> and <delSpan>, not through <subst>
Here's an example (this is simplified; many required attributes are not present):
One must have lived longer with <subst> <del seq="1">this</del> <del seq="2"> <add>such a</add> </del> <add seq="3">a</add> </subst> system, to appreciate its advantages.
<addSpan> and <delSpan>
We will record as a project that <addSpan> and <delSpan> usage always signals a substitution on Whitman's part. Though using <subst> on these large-scale revisions is impossible or at least very difficult, given validation problems, we will declare as a project that use of <addSpan> and <delSpan> in combination signals a large-scale substitution.
Ongoing Concerns
1. Currently, there seems to be no good way to deal with substitutions that arise within a longer substitution (we are not able to nest <subst>s within a <subst>). For the moment we are simply encoding interior substitutions already in a larger <subst> tag as <add>s and <del> s.
2. At times Whitman's proof-reader's marks indicate that he wants a line break in a new place. For the moment we are using <add> plus the unicode for the new paragraph symbol (¶), but we would like a way to represent the new line breaks.
3. We have decided to use <restore rend="erased"> to indicate a segment Whitman initially over-struck but then restored by erasing the overstriking line.
4. We are representing text to which Whitman has added an underline by using <add type="edit" rend="underline">.
5. How can we note deletions of empty elements? (i.e. a deleted span value="bracketed")?
6. How can we represent places where Whitman has indicated he wanted to collapse multiple stanzas into a single one (see page 55, for example)?