Name vs. title
Following the conventions of the Helsinki Corpus, authors are identified by name rather than by title. Sovereigns of England are identified by their given name. For instance, Charles II is identified as charles. Other members of the nobility, including members of the royal family, are identified by their surname. For instance, Thomas Howard, earl of Surrey, 2nd duke of Norfolk, is identified as thoward (not norfolk), and Mary Tudor (Henry VIII's sister, not to be confused with his daughter, Mary I, who is not represented in the corpus) as mtudor.
In one or two cases, the Helsinki Corpus uses a title rather than a surname as the basis for a filename. For instance, Eleanor Clifford, countess of Cumberland, is identified as ecumberl (not clifford). In such cases, we retain the Helsinki filename in order to minimize confusion.
Women's names
As a general rule, women are identified by their surname at the time of writing. Generally (though not always), this is a married name. In order to minimize confusion, we do not change filenames to reflect a later marriage. Two examples:
- Mary Tudor, Henry VIII's sister, is identified as mtudor, whether before her first marriage to Louis XII, king of France, after that marriage, or after her second marriage to Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk.
- Elizabeth Oxinden, née Edwards, is identified as eoxinden, even after her second marriage, when she becomes Elizabeth Greenstreet.
In the correspondence of important families (such as that of the Barringtons, the Hattons, or the Plumptons), the Helsinki Corpus tends to identify women by their birthname, and we retain those filenames. So Anne Finch, countess of Nottingham, nee Hatton, is identified as anhatton (not finch).
In one or two cases, a woman appears in the Helsinki Corpus under her married name despite belonging to one of the important correspondence families. For instance, Joan Everard and Elizabeth Masham, both n&ecutee;e Barrington, are identified as everard (not jobarring) and masham (not ebarring). In such cases, we use the Helsinki filenames in order to minimize confusion.
Modifications of Helsinki Corpus filenames
Under certain circumstances, we have modified the filenames in the Helsinki Corpus for clarity and consistency. The conventions governing these modifications are given here, and the correspondence between the old and new filenames are set out inTable 1 at the end of the section.
- We have supplemented some Helsinki Corpus files with text samples by authors that happen to have the same name as the Helsinki Corpus authors. In such cases, we use the original filename for the Helsinki Corpus authors and distinguish the new authors by means of Arabic numbers immediately following the author's name. So the Alice Hatton of the Helsinki Corpus is identified as alhatton, whereas her aunt, who is not represented in the Helsinki Corpus, is identified as alhatton2.
Where the Helsinki Corpus distinguishes individuals with the same name by means of "jr" and "sr", we retain that usage. However, in texts added at Penn, we do not specially distinguish the father-son relationship. We follow this convention in order to avoid having to change Helsinki filenames. So the Valentine Pettit of the Helsinki Corpus is identified as pettit, and his son of the same name, who is not represented in the Helsinki Corpus, is identified as pettit2.
- In the Helsinki Corpus, Arabic numbers following an author name are polysemous. For instance, in hooker1 and hooker2, they indicate two (contemperaneous) works by the same author. In wplumpt1, wplumpt2, and wplumpt3, they indicate samples by the same author from different decades. In stat3, stat4, and stat7, the Arabic numerals indicate the volume number from which the texts (in this case, statutes) are taken.
For clarity and consistency, we have adopted the convention that Arabic numbers immediately following an author's name always indicate distinct authors. This forces us to modify Helsinki filenames of the type mentioned in the preceding paragraph. hooker1 and hooker2 become hooker-a and hooker-b. In the case of the wplumpt and stat files, we distinguish the individual files by decade, as described directly below.
- Several samples by a single author can span more than a decade (either already in the Helsinki Corpus or as a result of our work). In all such cases, we have divided the samples by decade, and appended the decade (indicated by the first year of the decade) to the filename. For instance, rhaddsr-1670 contains the letters of Richard Haddock, Sr. (rhaddsr) from the 1670s.
Similarly, the wplumpt files mentioned earlier are identified as wplumpt-1500, wplumpt-1510, and wplumpt-1530, and the statute files appear as stat-1500, stat-1510, and so on.
In one or two cases, it is not clear whether a Helsinki Corpus file contains material spanning more than a decade or not. In such cases, we have divided the file into the two identifiable time chunks, but not identified them by decade. For instance, tillots is divided into tillots-a (from before 1671) and tillots-b (from 1679). In one or two cases, material by a single author spans more than a decade, but we identify the samples in some other way than by decade in order to avoid changing a Helsinki filename. For instance, Brilliana Harley's letters to her husband (all but one of which are part of the Helsinki Corpus) are identified as harley, and her later letters to her son, which are not included in the Helsinki Corpus, are identified as harleyedw. Thomas More's one personal letter from the 1620s (included in the Helsinki Corpus) is identified as morelet1, and his personal letters from the 1630s (some from the Helsinki Corpus, and some added by us) are identified as morelet2.