Tagging People, Places, etc. in Transcriptions
People, places, and other named entities are tagged in a similar
fashion: each name is tagged using a distinguishing tag with an
ref attribute that points to the associated
id. They also share a set of common rules:
They must not begin or end with spaces
They must use the ref to refer to the
entity's record
People
Forbes more than once directs a correspondent to "be
particularly inquisitive about the Names of Places, & of
Persons," while acknowledging the reality that sometimes
"the Names cannot be got (as indeed it is not an easy matter to
discover all these exactly in such a Confusion)" (p.
802).
This project seeks to honour Forbes's particularity on these
matters, and to represent the inevitable gaps.
Tagging Names and Creating IDs
References to people by name (including pseudonym) should be
tagged using the persName element
that uses the ref attribute to point to
the person's id using the special
prs: prefix. For instance:
<persName ref="prs:LYONR1">Mr. Lyon</persName>
Where prs:1 refers to the
person's id in the database. Ideally, an id comprises the first
four letters of a person's surname and the first letter of their
given name, followed by a number making that id unique among
people with the same alphabetic id; for example, there are two
Robert Lyons in the Lyon in Mourning, so we have a LYONR1 and a
LYONR2. Lacking full names, these ids may be constituted
improvisationally: SYDDX1 (Mrs Syddall), ALADY3 (for the author of
v03.0478.01),
etc. An id and file should be created for any person who: i) is
named (given name and/or surname or aristocatic title, e.g.: Duke
of Cumberland) in the Lyon in Mourning, ii) is not named in the
Lyon in Mourning, but whose name has been provided through
research, and/or iii) who features as an author or other actor in
the transmission of LiM items.
Personal names should include any honourifics or titles, which
may be editorially expanded:
<persName ref="prs:LYONR1"><choice><abbr>Revd.</abbr><expan>Reverend</expan></choice> Mr. Lyon</persName>
Using rs, and Tagging Phrases
Do not use persName to tag
indirect references to people—e.g. The King; His mother; That
Guy—as these are not personal names, but references to a person.
In these cases, instead of
persName, use the
rs (referring string) element with
type=person
alongside the ref attribute that points to
the person. For instance:
<rs type="person" ref="prs:ROBER2">his mother</rs>
First-person and second-person references should not be tagged
either with persName or
rs, unless they are part of an
identifying rs phrase, e.g.: my
cousin, your daughter. So, neither the "I" nor the
"you" would be tagged in the phrase "I am writing
to you this day." Phrases like "your Majesty" and
"your Highness" are also excluded. In exceptional
circumstances, this might cause a person to be excluded from
tagging in an item. In that case, an editorial note should be
added that includes a tag. For example, if James Frances Edward
Stuart appears only as "Your Majesty" in an item:
Your Majesty<note type="editorial" resp="team:ID1"><persName ref="prs:STUAJ1"/></note>
Both the rs and
persName tags should include as
much identifying information as necessary, but not more. So, an
rs tag should include the
"my" in the phrase "my father." On the other
hand, leading articles and trailing possessives are excluded:
"the
rs type="person" ref="prs:STUAC1">Prince</rs,"
not
rs type="person" ref="prs:STUAC1">The Prince</rs,
and
"persName ref="prs:STUAC1">Charles</persName's
shoe," not
"persName ref="prs:STUAC1">Charles's</persName
shoe." Sometimes we may include phrases of analytical or
contextual interest, such as:
persName ref="prs:WILLI1">pretended Duke of Cumberland</persName
or
rs type="person" ref="prs:STUAJ1">one yt was injur'd, & qm they look'd upon as their
only lawful Sovereign</rs.
This project also uses
rs type="person" without
an ref to recognise human persons
(more-than-human persons being beyond the scope of this iteration)
who are unnamed in the Lyon in Mourning and have not yet been
identified, either because they are "lost to history" or
because of limitations in time, sources, and expertise available
to identify them at this stage. We do this to highlight their
historical being and agency, to invite identifying information
from website users, and to create an analytical category that
exposes silences in the Lyon in Mourning. At this stage, we only
use this tag for individual persons, as tagging groups of people
would create a more unwieldy category as well as tagging issues
that the TEI is presently ill-equipped to capture.
Tagging with name
The Lyon in Mourning also contains many references to persons
(and a few places) mythological, spiritual, fictional, or from the
deep historical past: Astraea, God, the serving maid Jenny
(v04.0823.01),
Alexander the Great, etc. In this first iteration, we have decided
to recognise these figures with the
name tag (including phrases that
might otherwise be tagged as rs,
such as "Son of God" for Jesus Christ), without
type elaboration and without creating ids.
This is not to take the position that supernatural or distant
historical figures are not also agents in the Lyon in Mourning,
but to recognise that they belong (at least, from our ontological
perspective) in a distinct category on which more precise work may
be carried out in a future adaptation of the TEI and the Lyon in
Mourning project.
So far, the only groups with tags are Robert Lyon's Sisters
(because they are the addressees in a letter), and the
Glenmoriston Men (a special case).
Mention of a Person as Part of an Identifying Phrase
Sometimes, a person may be named without being the referent in
a phrase, and instead of tagging them, their name will be included
in the tag as part of the identifying phrase for the actual
referent; e.g., Lord John Drummond's regiment should be tagged as
rs type="organisation" ref="org:JAAR1_Royal_Scots">Lord John Drummond's regiment</rs,
while MacIntosh's house (Moy Hall) should be tagged as
<rs type="place" ref="plc:MOYX1">MacIntosh's house</rs>.
Places
We use placeName or
rs type="place" according
to the approach to people names described above, although with
places it can be difficult to determine what constitutes a name
(e.g., Lady Bruce's house, which figures sigificantly in the text).
We similarly use
rs type="place" without
ref for unidentified places. Places might be
more broadly defined than human persons, however, so we have sought
to limit tagging to places that might be identifiable and able to be
located on a map. We do not, for instance, tag rooms in houses,
except to tag the house where the house is otherwise not mentioned
(e.g. Forbes's "room" or "rooms" in Lady Bruce's
House). We have not tagged boats which lack names and external
historical documentation, but we have tagged ships and provided
refs for them where appropriate.
Organisations
There are many organizations mentioned in the Lyon in Mourning,
but we have limited our tagging to: i) the armies (and navy)
involved in the Jacobite Rising of 1745, ii) Scottish clans, and
iii) the royal families of Hanover and Stuart. Data on military and
clan affiliation is presently unevenly applied throughout our
personography. The British Army, the Independent Highland Companies,
and the Argyllshire Militia are treated as separate organisations,
which has the unfortunate effect of excluding the latter two where,
for example, "Cumberland's Army" is tagged as the British
Army. In future, it may be more appropriate to merge these
organizations to show the composite nature of government forces.
Other organisations such as the Skye militia may be added in
future.
Events
Objects
We have not tagged objects in transcribed text, but objects of
special significance are documented in metadata.