[osis-core] Selah

[Todd Tillinghast]

Kirk,

See below.

Todd
> 
> > My problem is that when I look in the toolbox I don't find a tool
that
> > readily addresses the markup need.
> >
> > I agree that some people may not want/need to do anything special
with
> > it, but there are a reasonable number of others that do make a clear
> > distinction between selah and other text.
> 
> Maybe this is a repeat of previous discussion; if so, please point me
to
> it. What is the need? To mark it for special processing? Or mark it
for
> special information? Can't one of the other elements do the job, with
an
> attribute? Can't we create a <seg type="selah"> or some other element
> with a "selah" attribute?
> 

While this is possible, we have said that <seg> is for non-standard
markup needs.  It seems that "selah" should be a part of standard
practice.

> > Are you suggesting that the text "selah" is not in original text?
If so
> > what was in the original text that leads translators to put a
"selah" in
> > the translated work?
> 
> As you mean "original", it is in the original text. Whether it was
added
> after the original composition is a matter of debate -- over
incomplete
> evidence. That's outside the scope of OSIS! For all practical
purposes,
> it is original.
> 
> Can we put a finer point on the use case? What is it people want? What
> do they think it is? So far, I see:
> 
> 1. identify the span of text 'selah'
> 2. format it in a special way for printing/display
> 
> For any kind of post-processing, string search should cover any need.
If
> one is going to create a special element or attribute, then it seems
to
> me we've got to define what selah is: a linguistic phenomenon,
literary,
> marginal/foot- note (by the original author), or ... ? That will tell
us
>   whether to associate it with another already-existing element, or
> create a separate one.
> 

While it will likely be used for printing/display in the same way that
every other element is used for printing/display, the purpose is not for
printing/display.

I think "selah" has a lot of similarities with <signed>.  Some
translations are constructed such that they would use it while others
are not.


> A suggestion: we make an attribute string 'selah' available to all the
> elements that might conceivably use it. There is no finer analysis or
> other characteristic belonging to 'selah' except that it is, and that
it
> occurs at a specific point in the text, so nothing else is needed. The
> choice of which element to add to the 'selah' attribute string will
> depend on what the encoder thinks Selah *is*. Problem is that there
will
> be more than one opinion. So we could just let them identify an
element
> as "selah-ish". ;=D
> 
> My $0.02.

I would strongly resist a "selah" attribute.  As I said earlier, it
seems to parallel <signed>.

I also don't think this falls into the category of things that should be
searched for within PCDATA.  I would agree with searching if this were a
purely presentation issue.  I think this is a pure "data representation"
issue.

> 
> Blessings,
> 
> Kirk
> --
> Kirk E. Lowery, Ph.D.
> Director, Westminster Hebrew Institute
> Adjunct Professor of Old Testament
> Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia
> 
> Theorie ist, wenn man alles weiss und nichts klappt.
> Praxis ist, wenn alles klappt und keiner weiss warum.
> Bei uns sind Theorie und Praxis vereint:
> nichts klappt und keiner weiss warum!
> 
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