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Can anybody explain the difference between TEI and SGML format and/or how they are related?

Stefan Falk
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1 Answers1

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In short TEI is XML, XML is SGML.

The "G" in SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) means (among several other things) that a markup language may customize it syntax. For instance, you can define an SGML syntax where the tags (or elements) are like [v id:id1] instead of <v id="id1"></v>.

XML is a concrete syntax of SGML, plus several other requirements that subset SGML. In XML (and HTML too) the elements are delimited by angular brackets: <body>. Each tag in XML must be paired with an explicit end tag: </body>.

So far, we haven't talk about how the document is structured (the document type or schema). XML by itself does not impose restrictions on the document structure. The following is valid (i.e. well-formed) XML: 

<item>
   <body>
     <head>I don't know what I'm doing</head>
   </body>
</item>

TEI defines a common structure that all TEI documents must comply with, and assign a meaning to each tag. For instance:

The actual text (<text>) contains a single text of any kind. This commonly contains the actual text and other encodings. A text <text> minimally contains a text body (<body>). The body contains lower-level text structures like paragraphs (<p>), or different structures for text genres other than prose [source]

<text>
  <body>
    <p>For the first time in twenty-five years...</p>
  </body>
</text>
Javier
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