Re: use cases for <space>

See  http://tei-l.970651.n3.nabble.com/Telegrams-td2349233.html for some 
prior discussion of case (2).

I suppose one might defend the use of <gap> here by arguing that the 
document being transcribed is the idealised completed version of the 
form, and hence that the blanks are actually intentional gaps. Well, maybe.

The trouble with using <space> is that it doesn't distinguish these and 
other possible readings of the white space or "polite elision". I think 
there's a good case for a specific element (anyone for <blank/> ?) for 
the latter (Paul's case 3), if only because it is so conventionalised.


On 13/02/17 22:04, C. M. Sperberg-McQueen wrote:
>> 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
> ********************************************