[osis-core] Subject of Texts?

[Patrick Durusau]

Greetings,

Following up on Harry's question yesterday:

>I'd rather have a way of saying "I'm a commentary on
>verse xxx", or "I'm a sermon on passage xxx", or "I'm
>a versification of psalm xxx", etc.
>
Harry: As I understand the stream of postings yesterday, this is 
something different from the attributes on the <a> element or other 
pointers?

In other words, a portion of a text (leaving aside the level of the 
element for the moment) should be able to say "what" it is about?

By way of example:

<p>The Sumerian poem and the Book of Job have marked similarities as 
well as differences. It is important to note that both end on the same 
note of humble acquiesence before the inscrutable divine will. The 
Sumerian composition is the earliest treatment of the problem of 
suffering in Mesopotamia, the forerunner of similar compositions 
considered below.</p>

Job: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, Marvin H. Pope, 
Anchor Bible Series, page LX.

so one possibility (I am not wedded to the syntax/names, just 
illustrating the problem) would be:

<p type="commentary" subject1="Job" subject2="Job, Mesopotamian 
parallel" subject3="Mesopotamian theodicy" subject4="theodicy">

Note that I have answered Harry's question of "what am I" with type (may 
need some other attribute as type gets used too quickly) and suggested 
that the separate question of "what am I applied to" (Harry suggested 
verses but could have other targets as well) with the subject attributes.

I don't really expect people to use this at the <p> level but just 
choose that arbitrarily to use in the illustration. More likely to be at 
the osisText (for an entire text) or perhaps at the <div> level for a 
commentary that breaks a book of the Bible into sets of verses.

This is similar to what I think we are discussing for <a> but I think it 
should be carefully distinguished. In this case, I am making a claim 
about the content of the element and its subject (not a target in the 
linking sense).

In the case of the <a> element, which I am about to cover in a separate 
post, I am saying there is a link and then making statements about the 
link. If we confuse those two cases, then we artifically (and 
unnecessarily in my opinion) limit the amount of information that we can 
record for a text.

Comments?

Patrick

-- 
Patrick Durusau
Director of Research and Development
Society of Biblical Literature
pdurusau@emory.edu