[XQuery full text] i18n core comment: xml:lang vs. language option in a query

Comment from the i18n review of:
http://www.w3.org/TR/2007/WD-xpath-full-text-10-20070518/

Comment 3
At http://www.w3.org/International/reviews/0706-xquery-fulltext/
Editorial/substantive: S
Location in reviewed document:
2.2.1, and 3.3.6
xml:lang vs. language option in a query

Comment:
 
XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Full-Text allows using language information as an input to a query, to trigger e.g. the choice of a language-specific stop word list:

 
//p ftcontains \"salon de the\"with default stop words language \"fr\"
 
Language information can be given in the static context as described in sec. 3.3.6, in a query as described in sec. 2.2.1, and via xml:lang in the target document of a query.

 
We think that the relation between language information given via 
xml:lang and other language information (given static or in a query) should be made explicit. An example of a statement where this relation is not explicit is in sec. 2.2.1:

 
\"An XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Full-Text processor SHOULD try to use the information available in xml:lang for processing of collations, as well as the various match options defined in Section 3.3 Match Options.\"

 
Questions which arise are: what has higher precedence (xml:lang or the language option)? Do you assume inheritance of the language option [http://www.w3.org/TR/2007/WD-xpath-full-text-10-20070518/#doc-xquery-FTLanguageOption] and / or 
xml:lang? Given a query like
 
//p ftcontains \"salon de the\"with default stop words language \"fr\"
 
and xml:lang=\"en\" at the root of the document: what language would you assume for salon de the in 
<p>salon de the</p>
or 
<p>... <phrase xml:lang=\"en\">salon de the</phrase> ...</p>
 
In 3.3.6 you write that the relation between xml:lang and the language option is implementation-defined. However, we think that you should specify the precedence / inheritance behaviour of the language option and xml:lang.

Received on Friday, 22 June 2007 12:54:28 UTC