Evolving text on the web
Introducing “web-based conceptual portmanteau”.
Shortly after the digitization of analog materials, such as books and newspapers, the capabilities provided by web-based technologies have enabled the evolution of text itself. The hyperlink, the ‘tweetable’ snippet here on Medium, and hover-over pop-pops which afford text more meaning, context, and potential for sharing have transformed both the form and function of text.
We particularly enjoy the idea of the ‘embedded aside,’ which is used to provide context, commentary, references, or provide fact-checking — as seen on today’s mobile version of this interactive CNN article covering President Biden’s first joint address to Congress (published April 29th, 2021). While the design is intuitive enough to avoid the insult of being explained, we’ve broken down the components below regardless:
As a non-traditional library working to transform how libraries of knowledge are organized and made available to the public, The Society Library is usually quite eager to work with designers and developers tinkering with new ways to display our content.
Today, we would like to introduce what we believe to be a novel innovation to web-based text, similar to ‘embedded asides’ (though we don’t know who originally created those). This innovation was designed specifically for our needs and enabled by the technologies which we already use in the course of our work. We call it “Web-Based Conceptual Portmanteau,” and below you will find the immediately available application of this concept as well as our designs for future innovation of this concept.
The word “portmanteau” has many meanings. By one definition it means ‘a large case for carrying clothes while traveling.” Another definition describes the term as meaning “consisting of a wide range of things that are considered as a single thing.” From linguists and literature, however, the word portmanteau means “a word formed by combining two other words,” all according to the Cambridge Dictionary, though translated to American English standard spelling in this article. The last definition we present here is the one which we apply to our concept: “web-based conceptual portmanteau.”
The linguistic phenomena of portmanteau and its use as a literary device spans languages and cultures all over the world. Portmanteau in this classical sense operates on text in a two-dimensional way, through the seemingly physical combination of words. Today, we posit that additional dimensions of meaning (specifically more precise meaning), can be added to text if based in web-based technologies such as those we use. Instead of combining words to create a composite meaning, our “web-based conceptual portmanteau” is based in a technology that allows us to combine multiple forms of media, visualizations, registers, and expressions into one information packet for the purpose of optimizing for precise meaning and comprehension. Unlike portmanteau, which operates at the “word-level,” “web-based conceptual portmanteau” works conceptually at the “claim-level.”
For our purposes, we define claim as being: “an assertion of truth, which can be a statement of fact or opinion, wrong or right.”
Examples of claims include:
- “The sky is blue.”
- “Chocolate is the best treat.”
- “The History Channel is always historically accurate.”
Claims can stand alone or be combined together to form arguments, text snippets, compound sentences, and other sentences, but the minimum application of “web-based conceptual portmanteau” is at this claim-level, even if the claim is considered a partial sentence.
That being said, we now offer our definition of “Web-Based Conceptual Portmanteau”
Definition:
“Web-Based Conceptual Portmanteau” is an internet-based expression of meaning that relies on web-based technologies to present a claim, argument, sentence, or text snippet with at least two of the following features as inherent to the text structure:
- embedded definitions, which are inextricably attached to the claim, argument, sentence, or text snippet.
- variant phrases of similar/different registers, including registers of different reading levels and technical registers which use jargon, which are inextricably attached to the claim, argument, sentence, or text snippet. Various phrasings of similar register, but substituted words, is also a feature.
- the expression of meaning shown visually through images, giphys, or other graphics referenced from external sources, which are inextricably attached to the claim, argument, sentence, or text snippet. Formats include: JPEG, TIFF, GIF, BMP, PNG, WebP, SVG, and others.
- the expression of meaning shown visually through videos referenced from external sources, which are inextricably attached to the claim, argument, sentence, or text snippet (video with audio does not count as two distinct features). Formats include: MP4, MOV, MKV, and others.
- the expression of meaning articulated through audio referenced from external sources, which are inextricably attached to the claim, argument, sentence, or text snippet (audio with video does not count as two distinct features). Formats include: MP3, WAV, AIFF, AU, PCM, and others.
- contextual explainer paragraphs which provide more broad context of the claim, argument, sentence, or text snippet itself or its connection with adjacent content.
It is encouraged, but not required, that “web-based conceptual portmanteau” contain source meta-data for any content that is combined with the claim, argument, sentence, or text snippet as a standard. The ‘physical’ connection of these features can be expressed through buttons, badges, hyperlinks, or other similar visual indicators on, in, or adjacent to the claim, argument, sentence, or text snippet.
“Web-based conceptual portmanteau” is not merely conceptual, but an innovation of text that is already being applied with web-based technologies at the Society Library. “Web-based conceptual portmanteau” was invented in order to convey the more precise meaning of claims, arguments, text snippets, and sentences for the purpose of enabling comprehension and understanding in an educational context.
“Web-Based Conceptual Portmanteau” — Applied
The following visual examples are demonstrations of “web-based conceptual portmanteau” applied by The Society Library. The Society Library uses the underlying technology created by Stephen Wicklund and front-end representation created by Mike Kissinger and Presley Pizzo both in our work and in our examples. The Society Library is grateful to have the support of Stephen, Mike, and Presley as volunteers, teammates, and contractors in the past and present.
“Web-based conceptual portmanteau” is not confined to the following representation in any way. The base representation of “web-based conceptual portmanteau” can be any format as long as it contains at least two of the aforementioned features.
Example: Using web-based conceptual portmanteau to express a claim in a node.
The Society Library is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that builds databases of content composed of arguments, claims, and evidence derived from various sources of media in order to model societal-scale dialectics for educational purposes. The Society Library organizes claims, arguments and evidence into “nodes.”
Feature: Embedded Definitions
Embedded Definitions, which are associated inextricably attached with the claim, argument, sentence, or text snippet
Feature: Various Phrasings
Variant phrases of similar/different registers, including registers of different reading levels and technical registers which use jargon, which are inextricably attached to the claim, argument, sentence, or text snippet. Various phrasings of the similar register, but substituted words, is also a feature.
Feature: Images
The expression of meaning shown visually through images, giphys, or other graphics referenced from external sources, which are inextricably attached to the claim, argument, sentence, or text snippet. Formats include: JPEG, TIFF, GIF, BMP, PNG, WebP, SVG, and others
Feature: Videos
The expression of meaning shown visually through videos referenced from external sources, which are inextricably attached to the claim, argument, sentence, or text snippet (video with audio does not count as two distinct features). Formats include: MP4, MOV, MKV, and others.
Feature: Audio
The expression of meaning articulated through audio referenced from external sources, which are inextricably attached to the claim, argument, sentence, or text snippet (audio with video does not count as two distinct features). Formats include: MP3, WAV, AIFF, AU, PCM, and others
Feature: Contextual Explainer Paragraphs
Contextual explainer paragraphs which provide more broad context of the claim, argument, sentence, or text snippet itself or its connection with adjacent content.
Feature: Sources
Contextual explainer paragraphs which provide more broad context of the claim, argument, sentence, or text snippet itself or its connection with adjacent content.
Summary:
Since this is the first articulation of “web-based conceptual portmanteau” that we know of, it is understandably and assumingely the most clunky and cumbersome version of itself currently. We assume that more deeply integrated, intuitive, and slick depictions of this concept will be forthcoming.
We believe that the future of text includes a compound, multi-media representation of a claim which may be expressed as features in a package, such as our “node” structure. Text is two dimensional, but with the capabilities enabled by web-based technologies, the future of text can be multi-dimensional.
We thank you for reviewing our work. If you would like to work with the Society Library on this concept, please feel free to contact us:
Contact:
- Website: SocietyLibrary.com
- Email: Contact@SocietyLibrary.com
We again thank our volunteers Stephen Wicklund, Mike Kissinger, and Presley Pizzo for making “web-based conceptual portmanteau” possible at The Society Library.
If there are any errors, misattributions, or fallacies in this article, we ask that it be brought to our attention immediately. The Society Library is committed to accuracy in our content and we’ve signed the ProTruth Pledge.
The Society Library is a 501(c)3 non-profit digital library that builds educational databases of knowledge by extracting arguments, claims, sentiments, and evidence from books, academia, news, the web, and other media. The Society Library offers consultation services to improve logical, unbiased decision-making and teaches meta-literacy based programs and argument modeling through a variety of educational internships.
