<label>

<label> (label) contains any label or heading used to identify part of a text, typically but not exclusively in a list or glossary. [3.8 Lists]
Module core — Elements Available in All TEI Documents
Attributes
Member of
Contained by
May contain
Example

Labels are commonly used for the headwords in glossary lists; note the use of the global xml:lang attribute to set the default language of the glossary list to Middle English, and identify the glosses and headings as modern English or Latin:

<list type="glossxml:lang="enm">
 <head xml:lang="en">Vocabulary</head>
 <headLabel xml:lang="en">Middle English</headLabel>
 <headItem xml:lang="en">New English</headItem>
 <label>nu</label>
 <item xml:lang="en">now</item>
 <label>lhude</label>
 <item xml:lang="en">loudly</item>
 <label>bloweth</label>
 <item xml:lang="en">blooms</item>
 <label>med</label>
 <item xml:lang="en">meadow</item>
 <label>wude</label>
 <item xml:lang="en">wood</item>
 <label>awe</label>
 <item xml:lang="en">ewe</item>
 <label>lhouth</label>
 <item xml:lang="en">lows</item>
 <label>sterteth</label>
 <item xml:lang="en">bounds, frisks (cf. <cit>
   <ref>Chaucer, K.T.644</ref>
   <quote>a courser, <term>sterting</term>as the fyr</quote>
  </cit>
 </item>
 <label>verteth</label>
 <item xml:lang="la">pedit</item>
 <label>murie</label>
 <item xml:lang="en">merrily</item>
 <label>swik</label>
 <item xml:lang="en">cease</item>
 <label>naver</label>
 <item xml:lang="en">never</item>
</list>
Example

Labels may also be used to record explicitly the numbers or letters which mark list items in ordered lists, as in this extract from Gibbon's Autobiography. In this usage the label element is synonymous with the n attribute on the item element:

I will add two facts, which have seldom occurred
in the composition of six, or at least of five quartos. <list rend="runontype="ordered">
 <label>(1)</label>
 <item>My first rough manuscript, without any intermediate copy, has been sent to the press.</item>
 <label>(2) </label>
 <item>Not a sheet has been seen by any human eyes, excepting those of the author and the
   printer: the faults and the merits are exclusively my own.</item>
</list>
Example

Labels may also be used for other structured list items, as in this extract from the journal of Edward Gibbon:

<list type="gloss">
 <label>March 1757.</label>
 <item>I wrote some critical observations upon Plautus.</item>
 <label>March 8th.</label>
 <item>I wrote a long dissertation upon some lines of Virgil.</item>
 <label>June.</label>
 <item>I saw Mademoiselle Curchod — <quote xml:lang="la">Omnia vincit amor, et nos cedamus
     amori.</quote>
 </item>
 <label>August.</label>
 <item>I went to Crassy, and staid two days.</item>
</list>

Note that the label might also appear within the item rather than as its sibling. Though syntactically valid, this usage is not recommended TEI practice.

Example

Labels may also be used to represent a label or heading attached to a paragraph or sequence of paragraphs not treated as a structural division, or to a group of verse lines. Note that, in this case, the label element appears within the p or lg element, rather than as a preceding sibling of it.

<p>[...]
<lb/>&amp; n’entrer en mauuais &amp; mal-heu-
<lb/>ré meſnage. Or des que le conſente-
<lb/>ment des parties y eſt le mariage eſt
<lb/> arreſté, quoy que de faict il ne ſoit
<label place="margin">Puiſſance maritale
   entre les Romains.</label>
 <lb/> conſommé. Depuis la conſomma-
<lb/>tion du mariage la femme eſt ſoubs
<lb/> la puiſſance du mary, s’il n’eſt eſcla-
<lb/>ue ou enfant de famille : car en ce
<lb/> cas, la femme, qui a eſpouſé vn en-
<lb/>fant de famille, eſt ſous la puiſſance
[...]</p>

In this example the text of the label appears in the right hand margin of the original source, next to the paragraph it describes, but approximately in the middle of it.

If so desired the type attribute may be used to distinguish different categories of label.

Content model
<content>
 <macroRef key="macro.phraseSeq"/>
</content>
Schema Declaration
<rng:element name="label">
 <rng:ref name="att.global.attributes"/>
 <rng:ref name="att.global.rendition.attributes"/>
 <rng:ref name="att.global.linking.attributes"/>
 <rng:ref name="att.global.analytic.attributes"/>
 <rng:ref name="att.global.facs.attributes"/>
 <rng:ref name="att.global.change.attributes"/>
 <rng:ref name="att.global.responsibility.attributes"/>
 <rng:ref name="att.global.source.attributes"/>
 <rng:ref name="att.typed.attributes"/>
 <rng:ref name="att.placement.attributes"/>
 <rng:ref name="att.written.attributes"/>
 <rng:ref name="macro.phraseSeq"/>
</rng:element>
element label
{
   att.global.attributes,
   att.global.rendition.attributes,
   att.global.linking.attributes,
   att.global.analytic.attributes,
   att.global.facs.attributes,
   att.global.change.attributes,
   att.global.responsibility.attributes,
   att.global.source.attributes,
   att.typed.attributes,
   att.placement.attributes,
   att.written.attributes,
   macro.phraseSeq
}