Re: use cases for <space>

> On Feb 13, 2017, at 12:25 PM, Paul Schaffner <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> I'm off to a meeting, so I won't trouble to defend <gap/>, but
> would for the moment point out that there are at least four
> situations, some of which should perhaps be distinguished:
> 
> 1. A book leaves a blank because the information is not
> (yet?) available. ...
> 
> 2. A form or form book leaves blanks intended to be put in
> by hand when used ...
> 
> 3. Polite elision, occasional before 1700, endemic in the 18th
> century. A blank intended to be filled in *mentally* but not
> usually physically. ...
> 
> 4. An example of one of these (especially no.2) which has
> in fact been filled in.

These are all worth distinguishing, but ‘gap’ is defined as
marking a point in a transcript at which the transcriber has
chosen not to transcribe something present in the exemplar.

Since 1 and 2 both involve meaningful whitespace in the
exemplar, both seem to me to fall within the defined meaning
of ‘space’, and outside the defined meaning of ‘gap’.  

Paul, if you have a way to defend the use of ‘gap’ for these,
I for one would be interested to hear it.  

Since 3 does not involve whitespace in the exemplar but
instead a kind of obfuscation, it doesn’t seem to me to fit
either ‘space’ or ‘gap’.  I don’t know whether there is a
pre-defined element for it.

For 4, my first thought (not necessarily the best thought)
would be to distinguish multiple hands (taking that term
in a general sense as meaning ‘act of inscription’, so that
the printer producing a pre-printed form has a ‘hand’.
Or perhaps it’s as simple as a ‘space’ with an adjacent
(or embedded?) ‘add’?

My two cents.

Michael


********************************************
C. M. Sperberg-McQueen
Black Mesa Technologies LLC
[email protected]
http://www.blackmesatech.com
********************************************