This RDF vocabulary, a part of NISO Z39.98-2012, defines a set of terms relating to the description of structural semantics of documents in general, and written works in particular.
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Document last modified: 2012-12-19. Refer to the revision history for details.
Standard terms used for the classification, partitioning and dividing of a document.
A work of fiction.
A work of non-fiction.
A major independent section in a piece of writing, typically appearing in journals, magazines or newspapers.
An essay.
A textbook.
A catalogue.
Preliminary material to the content, such as tables of contents, dedications, etc.
The body content of a document.
Ancillary material occurring after the document body, such as indices, appendices, etc..
A component of a collection.
A major structural division of a piece of writing, typically encapsulating a set of related chapters.
A major structural division of a piece of writing.
A major sub-division of a chapter.
A major structural division that may also appear as a substructure of a part (esp. in legislation).
A structural division typically subordinate in importance to a part or division (esp. in textbooks and legislation).
A major sub-division of a section.
An introductory section that precedes the work, typically not written by the work's author.
An introductory section that precedes the work, typically written by the work's author.
An introductory section that sets the background to a story, typically part of the narrative.
A section in the beginning of the work, typically introducing the reader to the scope or nature of the work's content
A section in the beginning of the work, typically containing introductory and/or explanatory prose regarding the scope or nature of the work's content
An ending section that typically wraps up the work.
A concluding section that is typically written from a later point in time than the main story, although still part of the narrative.
An ending section that typically details the history of the story or its significance.
A table of contents, typically appearing in the work's frontmatter, or at the beginning of a section.
Supplemental information.
An alphabetical list of terms in a particular domain of knowledge with the definitions for those terms.
A list of works cited.
A list of albums and/or songs by a performer.
A list of acting roles by a performer.
A detailed list, usually arranged alphabetically, of the specific information in a publication.
A brief description usually located at the end of a publication, describing production notes relevant to the edition.
The title of the work, or, when used in the context of a fulltitle, the primary part of the full title.
The title appearing that appears on the first page of a work or immediately before the text.
The full title of the work, either simple, in which case it is identical to title, or compound, in which case it consists of a title and a subtitle.
An explanatory or alternate title for the work.
The title of the work as displayed on the work's cover.
A list of additional works by the author.
The title page of the work.
The half title page of the work.
A passage containing acknowledgments to entities involved in the realization of the work.
Information relating to the publication or distribution of the work.
A formal statement authorizing the publication of the work.
A listing of illustrations included in the work.
A listing of tables included in the work.
The publisher's address, which can be abbreviated to city and postal code only.
A note from the publisher.
An explanation of an editor’s method, or a discussion of variant texts.
Describes financial assistance towards the work.
A list of contributors to the work.
Acknowledgments of previously published parts of the work, illustration credits, and permission to quote from copyrighted material.
A biographical note about the author or authors, here including editors, compilers, and translators).
An introductory note from the translator(s).
Publication errata, in printed works typically a loose sheet inserted by hand; sometimes a bound page.
A promotional description of the book, often containing quotations from reviews.
An inscription addressed to one or several particular person(s).
Non-structural components that occur within documents, such as letters, poems, quotations, etc.
A group of interrelated paragraphs.
A sample, model, illustration or template representative of some aspect of the narrative.
A quotation at the start of a document or section that typically introduces or sets the theme for what follows.
Explanatory information about passages in the work.
An annotation whose purpose is to provide an introductory note.
An annotation whose purpose is to provide commentary.
An annotation whose purpose is to provide a clarification.
An annotation whose purpose is to provide a correction.
An annotation whose purpose is to indicate an alteration made to the source document, such as the re-arrangement or removal of content.
An annotation whose purpose is to describe some aspect of the document layout, such as the formatting of a page or conventions used in rendering the content.
A temporary annotation not intended as part of the finished document, such as a production note
An annotation whose purpose is to provide a source or attribution.
An author of a work.
An editor of a work.
The general editor of a work.
A commentator on a work.
A translator of a work.
A republisher of a work.
A structural description for a piece of content (e.g., a table structure summary).
A positional location, typically expressed by coordinates.
A postal or mailing address.
An email address.
A file transfer protocol address.
A hypertext transfer protocol address.
An internet protocol address.
Secondary or supplementary content.
Secondary or supplementary content, typically formatted as an inset or box.
A review exercise or sample.
A notification.
A warning.
Marginalia.
Instructions/advice to the reader on using the work.
A work of fiction intended for performance.
A structurally significant segment of a drama.
An instruction to an actor or director, included in the work.
A listing of the roles or characters appearing in the work.
The name or identity of an individual role or character appearing in the work.
The name of the actor who plays a character in the work.
A description of a character in the work.
An utterance by a persona.
A diary.
A diary entry.
An instance of a figure, which may include a title, caption and credits in addition to an image or table.
A figure or image typically printed on a coated unnumbered page.
A section of a document containing more than one image, figure or plate. Gallery pages may be numbered or unnumbered, and on regular or special stock.
An instance of a formal, informal or business letter.
The name and address of the sender of a letter.
The name and address of the recipient of a letter.
An expression of greeting at the start of a letter.
An expression of farewell at the end of a letter.
An additional paragraph or note occurring after a signature in a letter.
An instance of a email message.
The recipient(s) email address line.
The sender's email address line.
The carbon copy email address line.
The blind carbon copy email address line.
The email subject line.
A set of interrelated items.
A list where the order of the list's items is significant.
A list where the order of the list's items is not significant.
A list of abbreviations.
A chronological list of events
A footnote or a rearnote, linked from the main text via a note reference
A collection of notes appearing at the bottom of a page.
A note appearing at the bottom of a page.
A note appearing in the rear (backmatter) of the work, or at the end of a section.
A collection of notes appearing at the rear (backmatter) of the work, or at the end of a section.
Terms for describing text elements.
A segment of text.
A group of lexical words, comprising a single unit within a sentence.
A key word or phrase.
A group of lexical words comprising a lexical sentence.
A phrase or sentence serving as an introductory summary of the containing paragraph.
A phrase or sentence serving as a concluding summary of the containing paragraph.
An informal second-person pronoun.
A formal second-person pronoun.
An abbreviation formed from initial letters of a name or expression, pronounced as a word.
An abbreviation formed from initial letters of a name or expression, with each letter pronunced separately.
An abbreviation formed from the first part of a word.
A value indicating quantity.
A value indicating rank or position.
An expression of the magnitude of two quantities relative to each other.
A value that defines proportionality to a whole, including percent sign if present.
A phone number, including area code and international dialing code.
An International Standard Book Number.
A currency value, including the denomination indicator.
A postal or zip code.
A single value that includes two or more sets of numbers separated by spaces.
A single fraction with a numerator and denominator, and without a preceding whole number.
A whole number followed by a fraction with a numerator and denominator.
A single value where the integral number is separated from the fractional value by a decimal point or comma.
A single value expressed using roman numerals.
A single weight value, including units.
A single value of measure, including units.
A value expressing the location of a point in n-dimensional space, including degree, minute and other indicators if specified.
A numeric, spatial or temporal range of values, as expressed by the start and end values.
The outcome of an event, such as a sporting match or vote.
The name of a city, state, province, country or other geographic or political entity. .
The name of a nationality, national group, or other designator of association. .
The name of an organization, corporation, or other business entity. .
The name of a species, genus or other taxonomic classification. .
The brand name of a product, medication, etc. .
The name of a religious, sporting, or other event, holiday or festival. .
The name of an award or prize. .
A proper name identifying a person, often composed of a given name and a family name.
The part of a personal name that distinguishes the person from a group of persons sharing the same surname. Also known as 'forename' or 'first name'. .
The part of a personal name that associates the person with a group of persons sharing the same surname. Also known as 'last name'.
The part of a personal name that indicates the family to which the person belongs. Often used in conjunction with a honorific.
The part of a personal name that signifies veneration, an official position or a professional or academic qualification. .
The handwritten, digital or stamped representation of a person's name.
A lexical word.
A word created by the combination of two or more stems.
An instance of a set of words with the same spelling but different etymologies and often pronunciations (e.g. bass the instrument and bass the fish).
A word created from the merging of two other words (e.g. brunch from breakfast and lunch).
The primary lexical unit of a word.
The word form common to all its inflected variants.
An affix attached to the front of a stem.
An affix attached to the end of a stem.
The smallest linguistic unit of a word with semantic meaning.
The smallest linguistic unit of a word that forms a sound.
The smallest linguistic unit of a written word.
An illustration.
A photograph.
Artwork serving only a decorative purpose, not contributing relevant information.
The publisher's logo.
A frontmatter illustration.
A reference to another information entity - a resource, fragment, concept, or notion.
A reference which contains data intended to allow resolving the target entity.
A reference to a non-resolving target - a concept, notion or other imprecisely defined entity.
A reference to a note, typically appearing a superscripted symbol in the main body of text
A reference to an annotation
A reference to bibliographic work, resolving to an entry in a directly or indirectly identified bibliography
An imprecise reference to a bibliographic work.
A reference to another segment of the current work that constitutes the logical continuation of the current segment.
A reference to another segment of the current work that the current segment is a continuation of.
A (sometimes valued) separator denoting the position where a break between two contiguous pages occurs in a paginated media.
Material, separate from the main body of text, appearing at the top of a printed page.
Material, separate from the main body of text, appearing at the bottom of a printed page.
The front side of a page.
The back side of a page.
A placeholder for a reference to a non-existing or deliberately removed image.
Indicates the current element has primary importance (for example, may identify the primary table of contents for a work or a primary source).
Indicates the current element has secondary importance.
Indicates the current element has tertiary importance.