New birchbark XML: names in context (NIC)
To enable a more interesting proof-of-concept for the birchbark letter XML project, I've spent the last week making a new, limited data set (all documents from 1100-1120, plus some documents with the same names from the 12th century, and all the documents that include the name Boris) that lists all the names that occur in a given document and characterizes their role in the document. For the time being, I'm calling it "names in context" (NIC).
I've been adapting the schema every time I come across some new aspect that seems significant. Each document contains one or more
- A name
- Optionally, a "second name"-- sometimes a patronymic or city of residence used to specify which Ivan is being referred to
- A role ("to", "from", or "3p" for 3rd party), and more optional details:
- financial
- gen - general, mostly for lists of names and amounts without any context
- owes
- owed
- orders
- giving
- receiving
- report
- an optional "polite" attribute to indicate particularly deferential language
- personal -- might get renamed to other if the "scope creep" continues like this
- advice
- complaint
- news
- death
- religious-- for when the names refer to saints
- gen
- optional "polite" attribute here, too
- financial
- A section for relatives of the person:
- Their relation (mother, father, brother, etc.)
- All options for the relative's role, as listed above
To illustrate, here's a few sample entries:
BBL 49: from Nast'ja to her brother
Conveying the news of her husband's death
BBL 736а: Ivan and Dristliv
Ivan tells Dristliv to collect money from Pavel and Prokopii.