Units¶

This page details the concept of textual units and describes JSON objects permitted in the "source" and "target" keys of the JSON data payload required by the /parallels/ endpoint.

Summary by Example¶

Assuming that 5c6c69f042facf59122418f8 is the identifier for the Aeneid, the following JSON specifies all of the Aeneid by split by lines:

{
  "object_id": "5c6c69f042facf59122418f8",
  "units": "line"
}

Assuming that 5c6c69f042facf59122418f8 is the identifier for the Aeneid, the following JSON specifies all of the Aeneid by split by phrases:

{
  "object_id": "5c6c69f042facf59122418f8",
  "units": "phrase"
}

Introduction¶

Because Tesserae’s algorithm works by comparing spans of text, it is necessary to break up a full text into spans of text. The Tesserae algorithm then compares each span of text labeled as part of the source text with each span of text labeled as part of the target text. We call these spans of text “units”.

JSON Object¶

The JSON object specifying which units to extract from what work has the following keys:

Key	Value
"object_id"	A string identifying the text of interest.
"units"	A string representing the unit of interest. Accepted values are described below in Permitted Units

Permitted Units¶

Lines¶

One way to divide the text is by line. In the case of poetry, lines are inherent to the structure of the text. In the case of prose, lines are arbitrarily enforced by the referencing conventions used by scholars of the prose work.

To specify division of a text by line, set the "units" key to the "line" value.

Phrases¶

Another way to divide the text is by phrase. Phrases in a text are delimited by ending punctuation provided by the editors of the edition of the text.

To specify division of a text by phrase, set the "units" key to the "phrase" value.