Encoding Cryptic Crossword Clues with TEI

The cryptic crossword is a highly sophisticated and challenging type of intellectual puzzle that has been a daily feature of British newspapers1 for nearly a century, and yet the culture and traditions surrounding it have received little scholarly attention. This article outlines a short history of...

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Main Author: Martin Holmes
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: Text Encoding Initiative Consortium 2019-08-01
Series:Journal of the Text Encoding Initiative
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/jtei/2222
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author Martin Holmes
author_facet Martin Holmes
author_sort Martin Holmes
collection DOAJ
description The cryptic crossword is a highly sophisticated and challenging type of intellectual puzzle that has been a daily feature of British newspapers1 for nearly a century, and yet the culture and traditions surrounding it have received little scholarly attention. This article outlines a short history of the cryptic crossword and explains how cryptic clues work. I argue that cryptic crossword clues have a great deal in common with poetry, and that we have much to learn from their structure. Many cryptic clues depend for their effect on confusing the solver through the use of overlapping syntactic and semantic hierarchies, so they serve as evidence that overlapping hierarchies are not merely an unfortunate limitation afflicting XML languages but are psychologically and linguistically real. Finally, I present a TEI schema and an approach to encoding the components of cryptic crossword clues in a way that enables algorithmic analysis of trends, features, and clue types, with a view to creating a historical corpus of encoded clues which will illuminate the evolution of the tradition.
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institution Kabale University
issn 2162-5603
language deu
publishDate 2019-08-01
publisher Text Encoding Initiative Consortium
record_format Article
series Journal of the Text Encoding Initiative
spelling doaj-art-61d200aa0db4486e9a6e4353da9f94832025-01-30T13:56:32ZdeuText Encoding Initiative ConsortiumJournal of the Text Encoding Initiative2162-56032019-08-011210.4000/jtei.2222Encoding Cryptic Crossword Clues with TEIMartin HolmesThe cryptic crossword is a highly sophisticated and challenging type of intellectual puzzle that has been a daily feature of British newspapers1 for nearly a century, and yet the culture and traditions surrounding it have received little scholarly attention. This article outlines a short history of the cryptic crossword and explains how cryptic clues work. I argue that cryptic crossword clues have a great deal in common with poetry, and that we have much to learn from their structure. Many cryptic clues depend for their effect on confusing the solver through the use of overlapping syntactic and semantic hierarchies, so they serve as evidence that overlapping hierarchies are not merely an unfortunate limitation afflicting XML languages but are psychologically and linguistically real. Finally, I present a TEI schema and an approach to encoding the components of cryptic crossword clues in a way that enables algorithmic analysis of trends, features, and clue types, with a view to creating a historical corpus of encoded clues which will illuminate the evolution of the tradition.https://journals.openedition.org/jtei/2222cryptic crosswordsanalysis and interpretation
spellingShingle Martin Holmes
Encoding Cryptic Crossword Clues with TEI
Journal of the Text Encoding Initiative
cryptic crosswords
analysis and interpretation
title Encoding Cryptic Crossword Clues with TEI
title_full Encoding Cryptic Crossword Clues with TEI
title_fullStr Encoding Cryptic Crossword Clues with TEI
title_full_unstemmed Encoding Cryptic Crossword Clues with TEI
title_short Encoding Cryptic Crossword Clues with TEI
title_sort encoding cryptic crossword clues with tei
topic cryptic crosswords
analysis and interpretation
url https://journals.openedition.org/jtei/2222
work_keys_str_mv AT martinholmes encodingcrypticcrosswordclueswithtei