LIBRORUM models the book along two axes: content versus form, and the book as read versus the book as produced. Everything else follows from this.
Six regions
| Region | Content |
|---|---|
| Λ | The book as read, in the general linguistic sense (written or spoken): graphemes, writing systems, word forms, sentences, verse lines, divisions, references, judgements. |
| Φ | The observable book: what a reader sees, hears or touches (pages, sounding book, tactile book). |
| C_cont | Digital content: the encoded text, markup, encoded grammars. |
| C_form | Digital form: typeset documents, speech synthesis, braille files; the concrete presentation grammar. |
| M_cont | Material content: copy marked for the press, manuscripts of the author's copy. |
| M_form | Material form: hot-metal composition, plates, ribbons, braille plates. |
The physical book is a carrier, not a region. Region names are always capitalized (C_form, C_cont, M_form, M_cont).
Modelling criterion
A linguistic unit is modelled only when some form depends on it: a presentation grammar acts on it, an encoding labels it, or something observable realizes it. Internal linguistic structure with no consequence for form is left to linguistics.
Writing systems, scripts, graphemes
A writing system is the written modality of a language; it belongs to exactly one language, while a language may have several. A script is an inventory of shapes (visual or tactile) shared by many writing systems. Graphemes belong to writing systems, never to scripts.
Linear order is linguistic
Units of Λ stand in a linear order that no presentation grammar can change. The grammar places only the more loosely connected elements (notes, running heads, illustrations, tables).
Presentation grammars
Abstract presentation grammars are relational, value-free conventions of a tradition; concrete ones hold the effective values for a given rendition. They exist for visual, sounding and tactile modalities.
An ontology decides nothing
Structural constraints belong to validation; open competences (lexicality, orthographic correctness, grammaticality) are recorded as judgements, results of interpretive acts, never as facts. Meaning is only ever a claim scoped to a reading event.
Stores of states
The production rows store states of the book. Mechanical transitions (:typesetFrom, :printedFrom, :synthesizedFrom…) are direct; human transitions summarize a path through Φ and Λ.
Peritext, epitext, metatext
Following Genette, paratext = peritext + epitext. Whatever is encoded, typeset or recognized on the page is peritext. Metatext (:Didascalia) is a functional notion: what directs the realization.
Terminology
Say illustration, never figure. A table and an illustration are distinct: a table may break across pages, an illustration is kept whole.