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