I’m afraid your request is a bit lacking on details, fxparlant.
If you are following the Guidelines’ recommendation and using @corresp to indicate translation, then it is not so difficult to find the “tranlated from” language of an element. Just follow its @corresp, and grab the language of the element you get to. (E.g., //*[@xml:id = substring(current()/@corresp,2)]/ancestor-or-self::*[@xml:lang][1]/@xml:lang — untested.)
That said, the TEI Guidelines do not give explicit advice on how to differentiate “I am a translation (follow my @corresp to see of what)” from “I am translated (follow my @corresp to see to what)”. Sometimes, perhaps often, that is not significant, or cannot be ascertained. But sometimes it is important and it has always bothered me that the TEI does not give guidance on this issue.
Furthermore, the TEI Guidelines do not provide a mechanism to differentiate translation from other uses of @corresp.
So I have long been a fan of a new semi-global attribute, @transOf, which would point to the textual structure of which the current element is a translation. I.e., it would be a directional, specially typed @corresp.
This would not solve the case, though, of wanting to indicate the language of some source that has been translated, when that source is not also being transcribed and encoded. E.g., how to indicate that
<p>Aquí el hombre completó sus primeras exploraciones de la luna.
Diciembre de 1972, A.D. Que el espíritu de la paz en la que nos
encontramos se refleja en la vida de toda la humanidad.</p>
is a translation (of the Apollo 17 plaque) from English into Spanish. (Again, it's easy if you have an English transcription of the source:
<pxml:id="A17P"xml:lang="en">Here man completed his first
<lb/>explorations of the moon<reg>.</reg><lb/><datewhen="1972-12-14T22:55:00Z">December 1972, A.D.</date><lb/>May the spirit of peace in which we came
<lb/>be reflected in the lives of all mankind<reg>.</reg></p>
all you have to do is say “xml:lang="es" corresp="#A17P"”, or, if my suggestion were to be used, “xml:lang="es" transOf="#A17P"”.) Of course you can always add a <note> to explain, but I would like something more formal and thus processable.
I do not know which case the original poster (Fxp33) has in mind.
P.S. I have just discovered that when using 5 tildes in a row to indicate to Señior Sourceforge that “this is a code block” you have to have a blank line, too.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Council subgroup 2015-05-28: Assign again to SB to follow up, and with the recommendation that he develop a proposal for @translationOf, to be available on all text-bearing elements.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
I sent follow-up e-mail to OP (at fxparlant@users.sf.net) on 2015-05-29. I have received no response via e-mail, and there has been no further comment on the ticket. Without further information we can’t progress on this particular ticket, so I am closing it just so we don’t keep revisiting it at Council meetings. Should OP (or anyone else) have more to add, it can be re-opened.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
I’m afraid your request is a bit lacking on details, fxparlant.
If you are following the Guidelines’ recommendation and using @corresp to indicate translation, then it is not so difficult to find the “tranlated from” language of an element. Just follow its @corresp, and grab the language of the element you get to. (E.g.,
//*[@xml:id = substring(current()/@corresp,2)]/ancestor-or-self::*[@xml:lang][1]/@xml:lang— untested.)That said, the TEI Guidelines do not give explicit advice on how to differentiate “I am a translation (follow my @corresp to see of what)” from “I am translated (follow my @corresp to see to what)”. Sometimes, perhaps often, that is not significant, or cannot be ascertained. But sometimes it is important and it has always bothered me that the TEI does not give guidance on this issue.
Furthermore, the TEI Guidelines do not provide a mechanism to differentiate translation from other uses of @corresp.
So I have long been a fan of a new semi-global attribute, @transOf, which would point to the textual structure of which the current element is a translation. I.e., it would be a directional, specially typed @corresp.
This would not solve the case, though, of wanting to indicate the language of some source that has been translated, when that source is not also being transcribed and encoded. E.g., how to indicate that
is a translation (of the Apollo 17 plaque) from English into Spanish. (Again, it's easy if you have an English transcription of the source:
all you have to do is say “xml:lang="es" corresp="#A17P"”, or, if my suggestion were to be used, “xml:lang="es" transOf="#A17P"”.) Of course you can always add a
<note>to explain, but I would like something more formal and thus processable.I do not know which case the original poster (Fxp33) has in mind.
P.S. I have just discovered that when using 5 tildes in a row to indicate to Señior Sourceforge that “this is a code block” you have to have a blank line, too.
Assigning to SB at 2014-11-17 F2F in Raleigh, to follow up.
Council subgroup 2015-05-28: Assign again to SB to follow up, and with the recommendation that he develop a proposal for @translationOf, to be available on all text-bearing elements.
I sent follow-up e-mail to OP (at
fxparlant@users.sf.net) on 2015-05-29. I have received no response via e-mail, and there has been no further comment on the ticket. Without further information we can’t progress on this particular ticket, so I am closing it just so we don’t keep revisiting it at Council meetings. Should OP (or anyone else) have more to add, it can be re-opened.