Critically establishing a text 1. Establishing the text Most premodern Chinese texts have been transmitted as woodblock prints, which have no punctuation in the modern sense and many are interspersed with one or more commentaries. Before such texts can be loaded into the TLS, punctuation and line breaks are added to help the reader distinguish the primary text from any commentary and appreciate its structure more fully. Only after this preparatory step can the texts be annotated. XXX [show how this is done- are there any opportunities for comment on such decisions, support for alternate decisions or reversion to the original ???- Best would be ability to revert to original and support an indefinitely large number of alternative structures; next best would be the ability to reverse individual ones as an annotation) --the great majority I think not controversial] 2. Text-critical editing within the TLS Among the most important annotations is the recording of the existence of variant readings from different editions.The HXWD website supports a simple workflow for recording variant readings from different editions when you encounter them while reading a text in the TLS. When a variant is found, the first step is to determine whether the edition that contains it is already in the TLS bibliography. You can search for it in the search box in the upper right of your screen after setting the target scope of the search to bibliography. If you find that the text with the variant is already in the bibliography, clicking on the blue button marked EDIT THIS REFERENCE will automatically add it to a list of texts with variants and create a unique sigle for the system to use to refer to it. [OR DO YOU NEED TO CLICK THE BUTTON MARKED "ADD DIRECT LINK TO THIS WORK?] If it is not in the bibliography you should click on the yellow ADD TEXT button in the popup. [and will that obviate the need for the ADD DIRECT LINK button- or include it? These variant readings are stored as apparatus entries according to the recommendations by the TEI Guidelines, using the 'double-end-point' method (see 12.2.2 The Double End-Point Attachment Method) attached externally. This allows full reconstruction of the text of every witness. ----------------------------------------------------- TRANSLATION- perhaps annotation and translation 3.Translating XXX A distinctive/unique feature of the TLS is the way it facilitates discussion of the meaning of words and passages by assembling the most closely related possibilities- taking into account both semantic and syntactic features and permitting comparative examples to be selected by genre and period and as well as author and individual works. : This is accomplished by an annotation system that combines minute syntactic analysis coded in nested categories to permit scrutiny at different levels of generality with a comprehensive semantic characterization that attempts to show how the meaning of a word or phrase relates to both other meanings and other words- inventorying closely related concepts (including broader and narrower categories) as well as synonyms, antonyms etc and participation in specific semantic relations such as parallel constructions and rhetorical devices. The various dimensions are related by grouping the various word meanings under broad conceptual categories, and the various syntactic constructions under each of the words to which they have been found to apply. The annotation is thus a unique amalgam of the semantic and syntactic- to which the tls has given the name "syntactic word", ie specific characters with a specific meaning playing a specific syntactic role- as subject or object etc. Every annotated word in the tls thus has a precise semantic-syntactic identity. Clearly we have a resource that goes far beyond collocation and colligation- although also supporting the more customary concordance functions. [perhaps use cases should go here- three examples of when different approaches are needed- when meaning seems clear but syntax isn't when syntax is clearer than meaning when some other structure- parallel or antonym makes either clear] [or after the popup description or both places- general here- concrete there] ------------------------------- What should the popup look like and how should documentation describe it A popup will appear, showing the character(s) that you have selected and prompting you to choose a specific meaning and syntactic role, ie discover its full identity as a "syntactic word". To facilite this choice the popup shows * All the concepts that have been associated with this character in the TLS annotations to date. The concept names are active links that take you to the full record of each concept, but the popup itself provides the concept's definition in a tooltip over the concept's name as well as a link marked SYN to list of "synonyms", typically other characters or words that express closely related meanings and appear together on the page devoted to that concept, where they have the same definitions shown in the popup but also have links to their own syntactic words. The number following the SYN link refers to the number of different combinations of syntactic roles and specific meanings, ie unique syntactic words, that have been identified so far when that word is used to express that concept. It is an active link to a list of these where the first column is an abbreviation for the syntactic role, the second is a brief definition of the meaning here and the last column, marked SWL followed by a number, is a link to a list of the places where that partiular syntactic word has been found. The number refers to the total number of places, including multiple locations within the same text. The first column is the title of the text followed by the chapter or section number. This is a link that takes you directly into the full text at the appropriate location. The second column shows the phrase containing the target of the annotation and the last column provides its translation. * The popup also contains a link to the page of the character or word being annotated, where additional information is sometimes found. How this abundance of resources is best used will depend on where the annotator's confidence or question lies- syntactic ? semantic ? relationship ? roles also under that concept in the concepts list together with the same brief definitions they receive on their appearance under the concept . [this does not match well into the list on the concept page]. The line end with a number that i a link to a list of all the different specific meanings and syntactic roles that have been found o far under that concept- followed by a number of the time eacah ha been found to ate. The number i a link to a lit of occurrence with a link into the original text at that point. with the number of times each was used for this character) (bearing in mind that annotations in the TLS have generally been proceeding from the oldest and most influential texts forward) The number following each concept is a link to a list of all the syntactic roles and meanings, ie syntactic words" that an annotator has associated with that concept. The entries in this list each begin with the code for the syntactic role that the word plays at this place in this text, followed by the meaning that it has here. The meaning is followed by the abbreviation SWL for syntactic word list and a number that is a link to a list of the places where that particuolar syntactic word (that meaning with that syntactic role) has been identified. This list begins with the title of the work repeated on each line for each occurrence within that work. If a number immediately follows that title, it refers to a chapter or section of that work. The rest of each line is occupied by the phrase in which the syntactic word appears and a translation of the phrase. The title at the beginning of the line is a link into the full text of the work at the point at which the syntactic word appears. * If you do not see a concept in the list that you believe captures the meaning of the word in this context you should first review the available concepts search on words that come to mind as plausible synonyms for the word here and use them to identify possible concepts- If you find one, click CONCEPT. A new popup will appear that asks you to verify the name of the concept and If none of the existing concepts appears to suffice, click on Add New Concept to bring up a list of concepts (by related synonyms?) a ------- [One of the major differences between the academic and the popular versions might be how the popup works. The academic users may prefer to have fewer hints so as not to bias and limit their imagination from the start- they can also be assumed to be more familiar with the available options. For the casual user it may be more appropriate to show him what existing annotations have been made for that word: preferably in the same work or author.