certainty

<certainty>

<certainty> indicates the degree of certainty or uncertainty associated with some aspect of the text markup. 21.1.2 Structured Indications of Uncertainty

Module certainty — 21 Certainty and Responsibility

Attributes

In addition to global attributes

target

points at the elements whose markup is uncertain.

Status	Required
Datatype	1–∞ occurrences of <rng:ref name="data.pointer"/> data.pointer separated by whitespace
Values	a series of one or more identifiers (URIs), separated by white space
Elizabeth went to <persName xml:id="ESX">Essex</persName> <certainty target="#ESX" locus="gi" degree="0.6"/>
Note	If more than one identifier is given, the certainty element is interpreted as applying to all. If no identifier is present on the element being annotated, the attribute should give the identifier of a ptr element which points at the element being annotated; for further discussion of this indirect pointing mechanism, see chapter 16 Linking, Segmentation, and Alignment.

locus

indicates the precise location of the uncertainty in the markup: applicability of the element, precise position of the start- or end-tag, value of a specific attribute, etc.

Status Required

Datatype

<rng:ref name="data.enumerated"/>

data.enumerated

Suggested values include:

gi	(element name) uncertain whether the element used actually applies to the passage.
startLoc	(start location) start-tag may not be correctly located.
endLoc	(end location) end-tag may not be correctly located.
location	both the start-tag and the end-tag may not be correctly located.
attrName	(attribute name) the value given for the attribute name is uncertain.
transcribedContent	the content of the element may not be a correct transcription of the source text.
suppliedContent	the content of the element may not have been correctly supplied by the reader, e.g. as in the cases of corr and abbrev elements.

Note

If the name of an attribute is supplied, it must be prefixed by att..

assertedValue

provides an alternative value for the aspect of the markup in question—an alternative generic identifier, transcription, or attribute value, or the identifier of an anchor element (to indicate an alternative starting or ending location). If an assertedValue is given, the confidence level specified by degree applies to the alternative markup specified by assertedValue; if none is given, it applies to the markup in the text.

Status	Recommended
Datatype	<rng:choice> <rng:ref name="data.pointer"/> <rng:ref name="data.name"/> <rng:ref name="data.word"/> </rng:choice> data.pointer \| data.name \| data.word
Values	generic identifier, attribute value, location (e.g. indicated by a reference to an anchor element or to an ptr element), or other appropriate alternative value.
<certainty target="#ESX" locus="gi" assertedValue="place" degree="0.2"/>
Note	This attribute makes it possible to indicate the degree of confidence in a specific alternative to some aspect of the markup. In the example above the encoder is expressing the likelihood (.2) that the generic identifier should be place rather than persName, which is the coded element.

given

indicates conditions assumed in the assignment of a degree of confidence.

Status	Recommended
Datatype	1–∞ occurrences of <rng:ref name="data.pointer"/> data.pointer separated by whitespace
Values	a pointer to a characterization of the conditions which are assumed in the assignment of a degree of confidence.
Note	A project may wish to control the vocabulary used in this attribute. The envisioned typical value of this attribute would be the identifier of another certainty element or a list of such identifiers. It may thus be possible to construct probability networks by chaining certainty elements together. Such networks would ultimately be grounded in unconditional certainty elements (with no value for given). The semantics of this chaining would be understood in this way: if a certainty element is specified, via a reference, as the assumption, then it is not the attribution of uncertainty that is the assumption, but rather the assertion itself. For instance, in the example above, the first certainty element indicates that the confidence in the identification of the new scribe as msm. The second indicates the degree of confidence that Essex is a personal name, given that the new scribe is msm. Note that the given in the second certainty element is not the assertion that the likelihood that msm is the new scribe is 0.6, but simply the assertion that msm is the new scribe; this is a recommended convention to facilitate building networks. The ambitious encoder may wish to attempt complex networks or probability assertions, experimenting with references to other elements or prose assertions, and deploying feature structure connectives such as alt, join, and not. However, we do not believe that the certainty element gives, at this time, a comprehensive ambiguity-free system for indicating certainty.

degree

indicates the degree of confidence assigned to the aspect of the markup named by the locus attribute.

Status	Optional
Datatype	<rng:ref name="data.probability"/> data.probability

Declaration

<rng:element name="certainty">
 <rng:ref name="att.global.attributes"/>
 <rng:attribute name="target">
  <rng:list>
   <rng:oneOrMore>
    <rng:ref name="data.pointer"/>
   </rng:oneOrMore>
  </rng:list>
 </rng:attribute>
 <rng:attribute name="locus">
  <rng:choice>
   <rng:value>gi</rng:value>
   <rng:value>startLoc</rng:value>
   <rng:value>endLoc</rng:value>
   <rng:value>location</rng:value>
   <rng:value>attrName</rng:value>
   <rng:value>transcribedContent</rng:value>
   <rng:value>suppliedContent</rng:value>
   <rng:data type="Name"/>
  </rng:choice>
 </rng:attribute>
 <rng:optional>
  <rng:attribute name="assertedValue">
   <rng:choice>
    <rng:ref name="data.pointer"/>
    <rng:ref name="data.name"/>
    <rng:ref name="data.word"/>
   </rng:choice>
  </rng:attribute>
 </rng:optional>
 <rng:optional>
  <rng:attribute name="given">
   <rng:list>
    <rng:oneOrMore>
     <rng:ref name="data.pointer"/>
    </rng:oneOrMore>
   </rng:list>
  </rng:attribute>
 </rng:optional>
 <rng:optional>
  <rng:attribute name="degree">
   <rng:ref name="data.probability"/>
  </rng:attribute>
 </rng:optional>
 <rng:zeroOrMore>
  <rng:ref name="model.glossLike"/>
 </rng:zeroOrMore>
</rng:element>

element certainty
{
   att.global.attributes,
   attribute target { list { data.pointer+ } },
   attribute locus
   {
      "gi"
    | "startLoc"
    | "endLoc"
    | "location"
    | "attrName"
    | "transcribedContent"
    | "suppliedContent"
    | xsd:Name
   },
   attribute assertedValue { data.pointer | data.name | data.word }?,
   attribute given { list { data.pointer+ } }?,
   attribute degree { data.probability }?,
   model.glossLike*
}

Example

(For discussion of this example, see section 21.1.2 Structured Indications of Uncertainty)

Earnest went to <anchor xml:id="A1"/> old
<persName xml:id="SYB">Saybrook</persName>.

<certainty
  xml:id="c1"
  target="#SYB"
  locus="gi"
  degree="0.6"/>
<certainty
  target="#SYB"
  locus="startLoc"
  given="#c1"
  degree="0.9"/>
<certainty
  xml:id="C-c2"
  target="#SYB"
  locus="gi"
  assertedValue="persName"
  degree="0.4"/>
<certainty
  target="#SYB"
  locus="startLoc"
  given="#C-c2"
  degree="0.5"/>
<certainty
  target="#SYB"
  locus="startLoc"
  assertedValue="#a1"
  given="#c1"
  degree="0.5"/>

Contained by model.global.meta

May contain

core: desc gloss

tagdocs: altIdent equiv

P5: Guidelines for Electronic Text Encoding and Interchange

<certainty>