Adrian Miles in Hypertext Structure as the Event of Connection labels with the numeral 7 a section of the paper and this section corresponds to a discussion of the concept of closure. On input devices of the QWERTY keyboard type, the key for "7" is in shift-mode the key for the ampersand which is the sign of a conjunction in many natural language writing systems and it is also a marker of the beginning of an entity reference in such markup languages as SGML, HTML and XML.
Miles writes:
Because the relationship between parts can only be interpreted by virtue of an end it is difficult to conceive of a set of definitions for illustrating or representing connection (whether logical, rhetorical, or dramatic) that can be provided prior to their individuated use.
Note the use of the singular "connection". Note the sequencing of plurals and singulars: relationship (singular), parts (plural), virture of an end (singular). Following the mention of the agency of virtue, the node spins through the mention of a set with plural membership (definitions), a name (connection) parenthesized by a set of types to arrive at the problem of priorness in the case of individuated use.
It is fun to trace the possible references for the pronoun "their". A bit of technicity may aid the reader at this point. In declarative languages such as markup languages, the grammar describes the data objects and partially describes the behaviour of conformant processing software.
Kant begins the _Critique of Pure Reason_ with the following assertion: "That all our knowledge begins with experience there can be no doubt." Miles in a sense asks where our knowledge ends. Perhaps where it began: where counting accompanies morphing.
Hypertextual behaviour can shift to a recursive mode of metatextual description. Recursive reference can lead to loops. Partial descriptions of behaviour guide an agent in the encounter of either loops or n-degrees of recursion.
Adrian Miles
"Hypertext Structure as the Event of Connection"
Journal of Digital Information 2:3 2002
http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/Articles/v02/i03/Miles/
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