xq update: what gets deleted when you delete a node?

I just wrote in another thread:

> you are stuck because there is no node with the identity inner-a.

I can't actually see anything in the update  spec that says that if you
delete a node then its children are deleted. If you delete (or in the
example posted earlier, replace) a node, are its children still around?

If I go

let $a := <x><y/></x>, $b=$a/y
return
(
delete{$a},
$b
)

do I get <y/> as the value  of $b or has that node gone somewhere?

For that matter what do I get if I do


let $a := <x><y/></x>
return
(
delete{$a},
$a
)

what's the value of $a if it holds a deleted node?

David

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