The 
                  span element represents an arbitrary phrase of text.
                  
               
               The 
                  span element is similar to the 
                  
                     block
                      element in that only acts a container for its child content. It is a semantically neutral element by default, but may express
                  some other commonality between the elements such as formatting or language.
                  
               
               To convey a semantic connection between the child content, the optional 
                  
                     role
                      attribute must be attached.
                  
               
             
            Allowed parents
            abbr, 
               d:about, 
               address, 
               annoref, 
               annotation (block variant), 
               annotation (phrase variant), 
               m:annotation-xml, 
               aside (block variant), 
               aside (toc variant), 
               block, 
               caption, 
               citation (block variant), 
               citation (phrase variant), 
               code, 
               d, 
               definition, 
               description (block variant), 
               description (phrase variant), 
               description (text variant), 
               emph (phrase variant), 
               emph (text variant), 
               entry (toc variant), 
               entry (index variant), 
               entry (bibliography variant), 
               entry (glossary variant), 
               expansion, 
               h, 
               hd, 
               hpart, 
               item, 
               ln (code variant), 
               ln (ln variant), 
               lnum, 
               d:longdesc, 
               meta, 
               name, 
               note (block variant), 
               note (phrase variant), 
               noteref, 
               num, 
               object (block variant), 
               object (phrase variant), 
               object (text variant), 
               sel:otherwise, 
               p, 
               ssml:phoneme (phrase variant), 
               ssml:phoneme (text variant), 
               ssml:prosody (phrase variant), 
               ssml:prosody (text variant), 
               quote (block variant), 
               quote (phrase variant), 
               its:rb, 
               ref, 
               its:rt, 
               s, 
               ssml:say-as (phrase variant), 
               ssml:say-as (text variant), 
               d:simplifiedLanguageDescription, 
               span (phrase variant), 
               span (text variant), 
               spine, 
               sub, 
               ssml:sub (phrase variant), 
               ssml:sub (text variant), 
               d:summary, 
               sup, 
               td, 
               term, 
               th, 
               time, 
               ssml:token (phrase variant), 
               ssml:token (text variant), 
               d:tour, 
               w, 
               sel:when and 
               wpart
               
            
            Allowed children
            This element may contain text.
            
            This element may contain the following children: ssml:break, 
               char, 
               emph, 
               object, 
               pagebreak, 
               ssml:phoneme, 
               ssml:prosody, 
               its:ruby, 
               ssml:say-as, 
               span, 
               sub, 
               ssml:sub, 
               sup and 
               ssml:token
               
            
            Content model and additional requirements
            
               optional attributes: 
@about, 
                  
@by, 
                  
@class, 
                  
@content, 
                  
@datatype, 
                  
@desc, 
                  
@its:dir, 
                  
@its:translate, 
                  
@property, 
                  
@rel, 
                  
@resource, 
                  
@rev, 
                  
@role, 
                  
@sel:selid, 
                  
@typeof, 
                  
@xml:base, 
                  
@xml:id, 
                  
@xml:lang and 
                  
@xml:space 
               
               one or more of 
                  
                  a choice of either one of the 14 elements: 
char, 
emph, 
its:ruby, 
object, 
pagebreak, 
span, 
ssml:break, 
ssml:phoneme, 
ssml:prosody, 
ssml:say-as, 
ssml:sub, 
ssml:token, 
sub or 
sup 
                     or text
end of choice 
                  
                
               Note that in addition to restrictions presented in the content model  above, 
                  					use of this element must also respect the following requirement:
                  
                     - The 
                        
span element must neither be empty nor contain only whitespace.
                        
                      
                  
                  Such requirements take precedence over any conflicting statements in the
                     						content model or in the lists above of allowed children and parents.
                  
                
             
            Variants
            This element exists in 2 variants. The other variant is the phrase variant.
            Namespace
            http://www.daisy.org/ns/z3998/authoring/