Encode Words as Words

Rationale

The TEI’s definition of <mentioned> —marks words or phrases mentioned, not used—is too vague for our purposes.
LEMDO uses <mentioned> to flag words that we are discussing as words. The word is not part of the grammatical sequence of the sentence. Regardless of its part of speech in any context, it functions in your sentence as an object (a word that you want to discuss for some reason). This is how we would tag a word that we are discussing or that a character mentions.

Practice

If you are quoting from a play, an edition, or a speech, use <quote> not <mentioned> . If you are trying to decide whether to use <mentioned> or <term> , keep in mind that <term> is for terms of art, technical terms, headwords in definitions, and words that you are using only so that you can then provide a gloss on the word.

Examples

<lg>
<!-- ... -->

  <l>Was this fair paper, this most goodly book,</l>
  <l>Made to write <mentioned>whore</mentioned> upon? What committed?</l>
  <!-- ... -->
</lg>
A note on Oth by Jessica Slights. Othello is not quoting anyone here, but is speaking of having to write a word upon Desdemona.
<lg>
<!-- ... -->

  <l>But never taint my love. I cannot say <mentioned>whore</mentioned>
  </l>
  <!-- ... -->
</lg>
A note on Oth by Jessica Slights. Desdemona treats whore here as a word.
<p>
<!-- ... -->
But that they <mentioned>compliment</mentioned> is like th’encounter of two dog-apes <!-- ... --></p>
(from AYL).
<p>
<!-- ... -->
Will I <mentioned>Rosalinda</mentioned> write, <!-- ... --></p>
(from AYL).
<note type="commentary">
<!-- ... -->
Contraction of <mentioned>God’s blood</mentioned>, a common oath <!-- ... --></note>
A note on Oth by Jessica Slights.
<note type="commentary">
<!-- ... -->
with a pun on <mentioned>whore</mentioned>
  <!-- ... -->
</note>
A note on Oth by Jessica Slights, with in-line glosses to help the reader. Here, Jessica is simply mentioning the word whore.
<note type="commentary">
<!-- ... -->
In performance, of course, any distinction between <mentioned>I</mentioned> and <mentioned>ay</mentioned> necessarily goes unheard by the audience <!-- ... --></note>
<note type="commentary">
<!-- ... -->
The observation that the common elision of <mentioned>that</mentioned> was <mentioned>yt</mentioned>, which could be confused for <mentioned>yt</mentioned>, a common spelling of <mentioned>it</mentioned>, makes possible the emendation without providing a compelling reason for its adoption <!-- ... --></note>
<note type="commentary">
<!-- ... -->
Celia substitutes the name of the god of Love for <mentioned>God</mentioned> in the familiar phrase, <mentioned>God have mercy</mentioned> or <mentioned>Godamercy</mentioned>
  <!-- ... -->
</note>
A note on AYL by David Bevington containing three <mentioned> elements.

Notes

If you are quoting from a play, an edition, or a speech, use <quote> , not <mentioned> :
<note type="commentary">
<!-- ... -->

  <quote>Finger</quote> can also be phallically suggestive <!-- ... --></note>
If the editor is talking about a word not directly quoted from the text being annotated:
<note type="commentary">
<!-- ... -->

  <mentioned>Finger</mentioned> can <!-- ... --></note>

Prosopography

Isabella Seales

Isabella Seales is a fourth year undergraduate completing her Bachelor of Arts in English at the University of Victoria. She has a special interest in Renaissance and Metaphysical Literature. She is assisting Dr. Jenstad with the MoEML Mayoral Shows anthology as part of the Undergraduate Student Research Award program.

Janelle Jenstad

Janelle Jenstad is a Professor of English at the University of Victoria, Director of The Map of Early Modern London, and Director of Linked Early Modern Drama Online. With Jennifer Roberts-Smith and Mark Kaethler, she co-edited Shakespeare’s Language in Digital Media: Old Words, New Tools (Routledge). She has edited John Stow’s A Survey of London (1598 text) for MoEML and is currently editing The Merchant of Venice (with Stephen Wittek) and Heywood’s 2 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody for DRE. Her articles have appeared in Digital Humanities Quarterly, Elizabethan Theatre, Early Modern Literary Studies, Shakespeare Bulletin, Renaissance and Reformation, and The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. She contributed chapters to Approaches to Teaching Othello (MLA); Teaching Early Modern Literature from the Archives (MLA); Institutional Culture in Early Modern England (Brill); Shakespeare, Language, and the Stage (Arden); Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate); New Directions in the Geohumanities (Routledge); Early Modern Studies and the Digital Turn (Iter); Placing Names: Enriching and Integrating Gazetteers (Indiana); Making Things and Drawing Boundaries (Minnesota); Rethinking Shakespeare Source Study: Audiences, Authors, and Digital Technologies (Routledge); and Civic Performance: Pageantry and Entertainments in Early Modern London (Routledge). For more details, see janellejenstad.com.

Joey Takeda

Joey Takeda is LEMDO’s Consulting Programmer and Designer, a role he assumed in 2020 after three years as the Lead Developer on LEMDO.

Mahayla Galliford

Project manager, 2025-present; research assistant, 2021-present. Mahayla Galliford (she/her) graduated with a BA (Hons with distinction) from the University of Victoria in 2024. Mahayla’s undergraduate research explored early modern stage directions and civic water pageantry. Mahayla continues her studies through UVic’s English MA program and her SSHRC-funded thesis project focuses on editing and encoding girls’ manuscripts, specifically Lady Rachel Fane’s dramatic entertainments, in collaboration with LEMDO.

Martin Holmes

Martin Holmes has worked as a developer in the UVic’s Humanities Computing and Media Centre for over two decades, and has been involved with dozens of Digital Humanities projects. He has served on the TEI Technical Council and as Managing Editor of the Journal of the TEI. He took over from Joey Takeda as lead developer on LEMDO in 2020. He is a collaborator on the SSHRC Partnership Grant led by Janelle Jenstad.

Navarra Houldin

Training and Documentation Lead 2025–present. LEMDO project manager 2022–2025. Textual remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA with a major in history and minor in Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. Their primary research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America. They are continuing their education through an MA program in Gender and Social Justice Studies at the University of Alberta where they will specialize in Digital Humanities.

Nicole Vatcher

Technical Documentation Writer, 2020–2022. Nicole Vatcher completed her BA (Hons.) in English at the University of Victoria in 2021. Her primary research focus was women’s writing in the modernist period.

Tracey El Hajj

Junior Programmer 2019–2020. Research Associate 2020–2021. Tracey received her PhD from the Department of English at the University of Victoria in the field of Science and Technology Studies. Her research focuses on the algorhythmics of networked communications. She was a 2019–2020 President’s Fellow in Research-Enriched Teaching at UVic, where she taught an advanced course on Artificial Intelligence and Everyday Life. Tracey was also a member of the Map of Early Modern London team, between 2018 and 2021. Between 2020 and 2021, she was a fellow in residence at the Praxis Studio for Comparative Media Studies, where she investigated the relationships between artificial intelligence, creativity, health, and justice. As of July 2021, Tracey has moved into the alt-ac world for a term position, while also teaching in the English Department at the University of Victoria.

Orgography

LEMDO Team (LEMD1)

The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators, encoders, and remediating editors.

Metadata

Authority title Encode Words as Words
Type of text Documentation
Publisher University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform
Series Linked Early Modern Drama Online
Source
TEI Customization created by Martin Holmes, Joey Takeda, and Janelle Jenstad; documentation written by members of the LEMDO Team
Editorial declaration n/a
Edition Released with Linked Early Modern Drama Online 1.0
Encoding description Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines
Document status prgGenerated
Funder(s) Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
License/availability
This file is licensed under a CC BY-NC_ND 4.0 license, which means that it is freely downloadable without permission under the following conditions: (1) credit must be given to the author and LEMDO in any subsequent use of the files and/or data; (2) the content cannot be adapted or repurposed (except in quotations for the purposes of academic review and citation); and (3) commercial uses are not permitted without the knowledge and consent of the editor and LEMDO. This license allows for pedagogical use of the documentation in the classroom.