Dear list-members,

I am currently reading through the TEI guidelines section 13 on
"Terminological Databases" (http://www.tei-c.org/P4X/TE.html#TETA).
In the beginning it is stated that

"/Work is currently ongoing in the ISO community to define a generic
platform for terminological markup (ISO CD 16642, TMF : Terminological
Markup Framework), in the light of which it is anticipated that the
recommendations of the present chapter will be substantially revised.
Readers are cautioned in particular that the discussion below of
`nested' and `flat' structures is now far removed from current practices
in the terminological field. A major revision of this chapter is planned
for the next edition of these Guidelines."

What in particular are the "current practices in the terminological
field" that the TEI discussion is "far removed from"?

The project for which I am looking into this is a bilingual database of
Indian logic, containing primarily Sanskrit terms and descriptive text
in Sanskrit. The descriptive text should differentiated according to
different categories, like "definition", "exemplification",
"explanation", and "sub-division". The term entry structure is also
mirrored for an English translation. Ideally we are aiming at parallel
structures allowing access to full information for Sanskritists and also
for users without knowledge of Sanskrit.

Sanskrit text will be linked to bibliographical information about the
edition from which it is taken (in case the text is defective, there
should be a possibility for critical emendations and annotations). In
addition, there should be a possibility to represent the relationship
between the individual terms - e.g. "is part of", "is subdivision of" -,
such that the source of information about the relationship can also be
entered ("text A contains express linguistic indicators that concept X
is  part of concept Y", "based on the thematic structure of  text A
concept X is part of concept Y", "concept X is part of concept Y in text
A based on external information").

It sould also be possible to represent descriptive text hierarchically,
that is, to indicate that certain items of Sanskrit text are related to
others by way of commentary. Supplementation of additional explanations
should also be possible.

As this brief description shows, the project is still in its beginning
stages. I am therefore looking for comparable projects, and in general
open to all kinds of suggestions.

Thank you very much in advance, and best regards,

Birgit Kellner
Institute for South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies
University of Vienna
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