1. Exploring intertextual semantics A reflection on attributesand optionality Yves MARCOUX & Élias RIZKALLAH GRDS – EBSI Université de Montréal Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

2. Structure of the talk • NL-based modeling and intertextual semantics (IS) (quick review) • “IS hypotheses” (ISH-1 and ISH-2) • Attributes in the light of IS • Optional containers in the light of IS • Conclusion • Question period Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

3. Intertextual semantics (1/2) • Usual semantics: • Intertextual semantics: Natural orartif. lang. Formal domainex.: 1st order logic S Artificiallanguage S Natural language Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

4. Intertextual semantics (2/2) • A framework in which we can give a precise meaning in NL to the artificial constructs that are structured documents • Is the underlined part an oxymoron? • Not from some standpoints: • Wittgenstein (I think!) • Precision up to a level deemed adequate by the document architect (modeler) • For some given target community Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

5. “NL-based” modeling (1/2) • Modeler works out structural declarationsandcorresponding IS simultaneously • EML2006 explored minimalist approach: two peritexts for each element type: • One “text-before” segment • One “text-after” segment • Both are fixed (constant) • Hyperlinks are allowed in peritexts Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

6. “NL-based” modeling (2/2) • Modeler starts with desired IS (prose) • Identifies structural regularities and corresponding peritexts in the prose • Works out structural declarations • Chooses element names as “abbreviations” of peritexts Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

7. A small example • Raw XML: <billing> <amount-burial>1205.47</amount-burial> <payable-burial>D</payable-burial> <amount-cremation>788.00</amount-cremation> <payable-cremation>F</payable-cremation></billing> Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

8. IS specification Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

9. IS view Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

10. What use can this have? • Mostly an “upstream” semantics: • Give easily understandable meaning to a document being created • Facilitates modeler-author communication • But possible “downstream” uses: • “reference interpretation” (legal?) when multiple renderings are possible • text-only version for text-only tools (ex.: full-text indexing) Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

11. More fundamentally • An IS specification captures the essence of what structural constructs are made for • XML elements / attributes • RDB tables (“The <field-name> is ” ... “.”) • Helps in picking up “good” names • Clearly reveals the ease / difficulty of making sense of our documents Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

12. Has links with... • Literate programming • Computer documentation Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

13. Possible avenuesas of EML2006 • Implementation • “IS view / expansion” in an XML editor • Apply to existing models • Popular ones: RSS, Atom, DocBook, TEI Lite • Explore how to treat attributes • Peritexts associated to element types only • Make explicit the hypotheses under which all this is interesting... Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

14. Structure of the talk • NL-based modeling and intertextual semantics (IS) (quick review) • “IS hypotheses” (ISH-1 and ISH-2) • Attributes in the light of IS • Optional containers in the light of IS • Conclusion • Question period Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

15. ISH-1 (1/2) • The IS of a document corresponds to its meaning (“intended interpretation”) • Assumed to be understandable (interpretable) by the (human) members of the target community either directly, or • by navigating through the network of resources anchored (via hyperlinks) in the IS of the document Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

16. ISH-1 (2/2) • The network needs only extend until it reaches resources directly understandable by the members of the target community • This network of resources suggests an actual interpretation (sense-making) path, but does not impose it • Any specific reading of a document yields more information than the IS, but IS is a guaranteed minimum for all readings Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

17. ISH-1 -- Example Document:<amount currency="MNT">100</amount> IS:Amount (in the currency whose ISO 4217 code is "MNT"): 100 (the table of ISO 4217 codes can be consulted at [http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/popstds/currencycodeslist. html]) Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

18. ISH-1 -- Notes • Intricate structure of the IS prose,many hyperlink traversals needed =>documents are hard to understand • Semantic “precision”: • Evolution, vagueness, are not a problem • Mathematical precision neither Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

19. ISH-2 • A raw XML document should look like an abbreviation of its IS • Thus, element names (generic IDs) should look like abbreviations of their respective peritexts • Related to information perennity Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

20. Structure of the talk • NL-based modeling and intertextual semantics (IS) (quick review) • “IS hypotheses” (ISH-1 and ISH-2) • Attributes in the light of IS • Optional containers in the light of IS • Conclusion • Question period Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

21. What are attributes, really? Subelements?<a href="dog.jpg">Click</a>is simply an abbreviation for:<a><@href>dog.jpg</@href>Click</a> Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

22. Not quite... • Intrinsic lack of ordering • (Name conflicts) • Semantic interplay between element and attribute (tweaking) • Can we account for this in IS? Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

23. Place-holders in peritexts Text-before for element amount:"Amount (in the currency whose ISO 4217 code is “@currency”): " IS of example becomes:Amount (in the currency whose ISO 4217 code is “MNT”): 100. Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

24. Structure of the talk • NL-based modeling and intertextual semantics (IS) (quick review) • “IS hypotheses” (ISH-1 and ISH-2) • Attributes in the light of IS • Optional containers in the light of IS • Conclusion • Question period Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

25. What if the attribute is omitted? • Treat as empty value? • IS of example becomes:Amount (in the currency whose ISO 4217 code is “”): 100. • Ill-formed => bad! Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

26. Marked sections in peritexts Text-before for element amount:"Amount@currency[ (in the currency whose ISO 4217 code is “@”)]: " IS of example (with attribute omitted) :Amount: 100. Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

27. It’s OK to omit, but... • It should be clear (somewhere in the IS) that there could have been something at the point of omission • What it is that could have been there • Why? Because all that contributes to making sense of the document Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

28. Structure of the talk • NL-based modeling and intertextual semantics (IS) (quick review) • “IS hypotheses” (ISH-1 and ISH-2) • Attributes in the light of IS • Optional containers in the light of IS • Conclusion • Question period Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

29. All this is meant to... • Help modelers (and developers) not forget that, want it or not, users do assign meaning to documents • If at least one sense making path is not devised by the modeler, users will roll their own, with possibly unpredictable results • Allow developers to specify and useably deliver to users such sense making paths Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

30. Future work includes • Apply to existing models • More powerful peritext computation? • Need more than peritexts + hyperlinks? • Need more than NL? Images? Sounds? • Multilingualism • Apply to other models / interface design • Experiment in authoring situations Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007

31. Thank you! Questions? Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007