Exploring intertextual semantics

Yves Marcoux - Extreme Markup Languages 2007 1

Exploring intertextual semantics

A reflection on attributesand optionality

Yves MARCOUX & Élias RIZKALLAHGRDS – EBSI

Université de Montréal


Structure of the talk

1. NL-based modeling and intertextual semantics (IS) (quick review)

2. “IS hypotheses” (ISH-1 and ISH-2)

3. Attributes in the light of IS

4. Optional containers in the light of IS

5. Conclusion

6. Question period


Intertextual semantics (1/2)

• Usual semantics:

• Intertextual semantics:

Natural orartif. lang.

Formal domainex.: 1st order logic

Artificiallanguage

Natural language

S

S


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


“NL-based” modeling (1/2)

• Modeler works out structural declarations and corresponding 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


“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


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>


IS specification

Element text-before text-after

billing "This section gives the billing information for this order. "

" End of billing information section."

amount-burial "Amount charged for the burial service: "

" canadian dollars; "

payable-burial "this amount is payable by: "" (D = Funeral director; F = Family)."

amount-cremation

"Amount charged for the cremation service: "

" canadian dollars; "

payable-cremation

"this amount is payable by: "" (D = Funeral director; F = Family)."


IS view


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)


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


Has links with...

• Literate programming

• Computer documentation


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...







5. Conclusion

6. Question period


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


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


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])


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


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







5. Conclusion

6. Question period


What are attributes, really?

Subelements?

<a href="dog.jpg">Click</a>

is simply an abbreviation for:

<a><@href>dog.jpg</@href>Click</a>


Not quite...

• Intrinsic lack of ordering

• (Name conflicts)

• Semantic interplay between element and attribute (tweaking)

• Can we account for this in IS?


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.







5. Conclusion

6. Question period


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!


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.


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







5. Conclusion

6. Question period


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


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


Thank you!

Questions?

Documents

Exploring intertextual semantics