Lexical Unit Boundary

The logical boundary of a lexical unit (word). It is used to mark the end of a word regardless of its physical layout on the support, allowing the system to reconstruct units split by fractures or line breaks.

Syntax

Any number of Unicode characters enclosed within ampersands &…&. Optionally, linguistic annotations can follow after a semicolon ;.

If the user wishes to easily identify a series of lexical units, the entire sequence can be enclosed within ampersands &…& with individual units separated by a forward slash /.

Overview

NotationSimplified ASTPaper Output
&𝑆×𝑁;λₛ=λᵥ;…&LexicalUnit([𝘜], LinguisticAnalysis{λₖ:λᵥ, …})𝑆×𝑁
  • 𝑆 = any sign (Unicode character) ∉ STOP_SET (cf. Technical Catalogue of Symbols) otherwise preceded by the escape character \.
  • 𝑁 = number of characters (represented by char or digits).
  • λₛ = label, which may also be in abbreviated form, for linguistic annotation.
  • λᵥ = value of the linguistic annotation (plausibility scale).
  • λₖ = canonical key for the linguistic annotation derived from the corresponding label.

Examples

NotationPaper Output
 
&ab-c&
ab-c
&*ab* [c]&
ab c
&
abc defg  hijk l
&
abc defg hijk l
&abc/def/hijk&
abcdefhijk

EpiDoc Outputs

NotationEpiDoc (XML)
 
&ab-c&
<ab>
    <w>ab<lb break="no"/>c</w>
</ab>
&*ab* [c]&
<ab>
    <w>
        <unclear cert="medium">ab</unclear> 
        <supplied reason="lost" cert="medium">c</supplied>
    </w>
</ab>
&
abc defg  hijk l
&
<ab>
    <w>abc defg hijk l</w>
</ab>
&abc/def/hijk&
<ab>
    <w>abcdefhijk</w>
</ab>

Structural Analysis (Conceptual AST)

NotationAST
 
&ab-c&
LexicalUnit
  Plain("ab")
  WordBreak
  Plain("c")

&*ab* [c]&
LexicalUnit
  Unclear[medium, legibility: normal]
    Plain("ab")
  WS
  Supplied[medium]
    Plain("c")

&
abc defg  hijk l
&
LexicalUnit
  Plain("abc")
  WS
  Plain("defg")
  WS
  Plain("hijk")
  WS
  Plain("l")

&abc/def/hijk&
LexicalUnit
  Plain("abc")
  LineBreak
  Plain("def")
  LineBreak
  Plain("hijk")