Defining Paragraphs - the basic unit of prose?

Defining Paragraphs - the basic unit of prose?

Catherine
Goodall

Brown University
catherine_goodall@brown.edu

1999

University of Virginia

Charlottesville, VA

ACH/ALLC 1999

editor

encoder

Sara
A.
Schmidt

P3 does not foresee the inclusion of verse within prose paragraphs. Many
occurrences of verse in prose paragraphs are quoted passages, and do not present
encoding difficulties. However, when the verse passage is attributable to the
same narrative voice as the surrounding prose paragraph, the use of Q and QUOTE
is inappropriate. The two common definitions of a paragraph consider it to be a
unit of content or typography. Another approach considers the occurrence of
"something else" (e.g. poetry) to constitute the end of a paragraph. While
probably sufficient for most formatting functions, this does not adequately
describe the conceptual structure of the passage, i.e. a group of verse lines
embedded in a prose paragraph. Since the description of both the physical and
the conceptual text is an important goal of the encoding, this definition was
unsatisfactory. Possible solutions included: (1) using 2 P elements and an LG
and linking them using JOIN or next= and prev=; (2) nesting the LG within TEXT
within P; and (3) modifying the content model of P to allow LG as its direct
child. The latter emerged as the most accurate and efficient solution. It is
consistent with the typographical and thematic continuity of the material and
thus with the most prevalent definitions of a paragraph. It facilitates the
accurate description of concrete examples already found as well as
unconventional ones with more heavily intermingled verse and prose. Finally, it
minimizes the tagging necessary to describe the passage and its structure.