Ce qui est écrit et ce qui est parlé. CRMtex for modelling textual entities on the Semantic Web

This paper presents the new developments of CRMtex, an ontological model based on CIDOC CRM, created to describe ancient texts and other semiotic features appearing on inscriptions, papyri, manuscripts and other similar supports. The model is also designed to describe in a formal way the phenomena related to the production, use, conservation, study and interpretation of textual entities. CRMtex was originally intended to detect the close relationship linking ancient texts with the physical objects on which they are supported, the tools and writing systems used for their production, and the various scientific investigations and readings carried out on the text by modern scholars. It eventually evolved to provide researchers with the fundamental concepts for the correct and complete rendering of textual objects, the events representing their history and the cultural and social environments in and for which they were created. The full compatibility of CRMtex with the CIDOC CRM ontology and its extensions ensures persistent interoperability of data encoded by means of its entities with other semantic information produced in cultural heritage and digital humanities. The new entities presented in this paper deal more closely with textual and intertextual structures and try to deepen the close relationships existing between fragments of text or sequences of signs and the underlying meaning they were originally intended to convey.