2023-06-09 10:02:30 +02:00
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
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<page title="Why tagging?">
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<p>Executive summary: tagging your digital resources to indicate in
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what <wikipedia>language</wikipedia> they are allow</p>
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<ol>
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<li>Proper rendition,</li>
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<li>Correct behaviour of some software,</li>
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<li>Choice of the right tools,</li>
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<li>Correct filtering.</li>
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</ol>
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<h2>What is tagging</h2>
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<p>Tagging is the process of giving <a href="whatare.html">language
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tags</a> to a digital resource. For instance, in legacy
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<wikipedia>HTML</wikipedia>, it is done with:</p>
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<pre>
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<![CDATA[
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<html lang="ar">
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<!-- Text in Arabic -->
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]]>
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</pre>
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<p>and in <wikipedia>XML</wikipedia> with the <code>xml:lang</code>
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special attribute:</p>
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<pre>
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<![CDATA[
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<book xml:lang="uk">
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<!-- Text in Ukrainian -->
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]]>
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</pre>
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<h2>What is tagging for?</h2>
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<p>The purpose of tagging is to give <em>unambiguous</em> information
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to the software processes that will handle the resource. For instance,
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properly rendering the content on the screen requires to know the language it is
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written in. Actual <wikipedia>typography</wikipedia> rules are different for each
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language, language-independant rendition can only be an
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approximation. In the same way, knowing the language used is
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necessary for <wikipedia>speech synthesis</wikipedia>.</p>
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<p>Some programs may need the language to know what to do with
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requests like <wikipedia>CSS</wikipedia>' "first-letter"
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pseudo-property. The first letter of <wikipedia>Llobregat</wikipedia>
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is 'l' in <wikipedia name="English language">English</wikipedia> but
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'll' in <wikipedia name="Spanish language">Spanish</wikipedia>.</p>
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<p>Tools like <wikipedia name="Spell checker">spell checkers</wikipedia> or an online dictionary must also be
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choosen depending on the language used.</p>
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<p>Language tagging also allow filters to keep only some documents,
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those written in a language that the user understands. At the present
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2023-06-11 16:17:27 +02:00
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time, most <wikipedia name="Search engine">search engines</wikipedia>, like
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<wikipedia name="Google Search">Google</wikipedia>, use heuristics
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2023-06-09 10:02:30 +02:00
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to find out the language of a Web page. While it works fine to tell
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apart <wikipedia name="German language">German</wikipedia> from
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<wikipedia name="Japanese language">Japanese</wikipedia>, it is much
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more difficult with close languages like <wikipedia name="Danish
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language">Danish</wikipedia> and <wikipedia name="Norwegian
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language">Norwegian</wikipedia>, specially if the text is short.</p>
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<h2>Current situation</h2>
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<p>At the present day, we are a bit stuck in a
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<wikipedia name="The chicken or the egg">chicken-and-egg</wikipedia> problem: many applications
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(like the search engines mentioned before) do not use the language
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information because it is not present or unreliable. Therefore,
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webmasters and other document maintainers are not eager of tagging
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because it brings no short-term benefits. Things are becoming better
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but certainly too slowly.</p>
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<h2>More readings</h2>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/i18n-html-tech-lang/#ri20050208.091505539">Why specify language?</a> by the W3C</li>
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</ul>
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</page>
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