seg and interp

Hi all

I'm involved in a project in which we're marking up a large body of
literature and we want to mark various passages in the texts as
significant, in essence labeling them as "this" or "that".  We took a look
through the TEI Guidelines and decided to use <seg> and <interp> to mark
the various passages with different attributes to specifiy what type of
passage it is.

For example, with <interp>:

In the <interp type="placeMain">Country of the Bhargas, on Mount Śuśumāra
in a fearsome forest of wild animals</interp> with a <interp
type="audienceGen">great saṅgha of about 500 monks, eminent śrāvaka-elders
who possessed clairvoyance</interp>.


And with <seg>:

<seg function="modul" type="pastLifeWho">if you wonder whether the brahmin
boy
                        Bhadraśuddha was then at that time someone else, or
you are of two minds
                        about it, or doubtful, do not see him so. Why?
Because the bodhisattva
                        mahāsattva Maitreya himself was then at that time
the brahmin boy
                        Bhadraśuddha</seg>

Two questions:

1)  Since this is going to be a very long term and labor extensive project,
I wanted to check and see if the community in general felt this was a
reasonable way to mark these passages and also if there are any suggestions
for other ways to do this which might work better.  Can anyone suggest any
other elements that might be useful for this kind of thing?

2)  We have a problem of going across elements (breaking the nesting so to
speak).  For instance, a passage might start in the middle of one paragraph
and finish halfway through another paragraph, and when we mark it the tag
begins in one paragraph and closes in the next.  The schema doesn't like
this one bit, and I'm wondering what is the best way to handle this.  For
example:


<p><seg function="modul" type="qualitiesBuddha">The Tathāgata was handsome
and charismatic,
                        controlled in his faculties and in his mind. He had
attained excellence in
                        control and calm abiding, and superiority in
control and calm abiding. He
                        guarded his faculties, elephant-like in control of
his passions, and
                        was radiant, unsullied, and clear like a lake.</p>

<p>His body was adorned with the
                        thirty-two marks of a great being, and with the
eighty minor marks, like the
                        blossoming flower of a royal sal tree, and towering
like Mount Meru, the
                        king of mountains. His face was as calm as the
sphere of the moon, and
                        radiantly clear and brilliant like the sphere of
                        the sun. His body was proportioned like a nyagrodha
tree, blazing with light
                        and great splendor.</seg></p>


Any help is greatly appreciate.  Forgive the formatting

Mike