Hi Julian,
I think I have now identified the difficulty more precisely. In
ConTeXt’s current APA implementation, citations are essentially built
around the author–date model, and the bibliographic categories do not
naturally provide a field for a conventional siglum such as |GS|. This
is why |righttext| does not replace the core citation: it is simply
appended to it.
The key |alternative=short| is also somewhat misleading in this context.
It does not mean “use a free bibliographic abbreviation such as GS”;
rather, it refers to ConTeXt’s own internally generated short-form
mechanism. So it is important to clarify exactly what this |short| does
— and what it does not do.
Technically, ConTeXt does preserve an additional BibTeX field such as
|shorthand={GS}|, and I have verified that it can be read back directly.
The difficulty is that the current APA specification does not recognize
|shorthand| as a normal field for a |book| entry, so the standard APA
citation machinery ignores it. Moreover, |alternative=short| does not
mean “use my siglum”; it invokes an internally generated short form. The
problem, therefore, is not storing |GS|, but finding a clean way to make
APA use that stored value as the citation form.
With SBL, this difficulty is much less artificial, because the style is
specifically designed for scholarly references in which one can more
naturally distinguish between the full bibliographic record, the
conventional abbreviation of a work or document, and the internal
locator. This is precisely one of the aspects I am currently documenting
for ConTeXt.
I am nevertheless looking for an elegant solution that stays within APA
for your particular case. The encouraging point is that ConTeXt already
knows how to preserve and retrieve |shorthand={GS}|; what remains is to
integrate that value cleanly into a reusable citation form, without
misusing the |author| field or hard-coding |GS| in the document.
JP
Le 19/08/2026 à 05:43, jbf a écrit :
I was able to add a shortauthor = {GS} in the .bibfile and tried
alternative=short in \cite. Together with the appropriate righttext it
results in (<empty>, GS §22) so almost there, in a way, if we could
avoid that <empty>, but maybe we can't.
Julian
On 17/8/26 20:26, Jean-Pierre Delange via ntg-context wrote:
Julian,
Thanks — that is very useful, and I think we are now essentially there.
Since |righttext| is appended literally after the author, could you
try including the comma there as well?
(\cite
[alternative=author,
righttext={{, ca. 350 BCE/2009}}]
[main::aristotle2009ethics])
If it behaves as your previous test suggests, this should give:
(Aristotle, ca. 350 BCE/2009)
That would be a pleasantly simple solution: |alternative=author|
supplies the author, while |righttext| supplies the
historical/edition dating information without requiring any change to
the bibliography data or the APA rendering itself.
It would also be worth checking afterwards whether the outer
parentheses can be handled by the citation machinery itself, but I
would first confirm this minimal form.
JP
* Aristotle might add one complication: if character is formed by
repeated action, those repeated actions cannot themselves be
normatively neutral. A just /hexis/ (ἕξις) requires the practice of
just actions, which in turn requires some prior account of what
counts as just. This is one reason why the /Nicomachean Ethics/ leads
so naturally into the /Politics/: the formation of character depends
on laws, education, and ultimately on the ordering of the political
community.
Le 17/08/2026 à 11:16, jbf a écrit :
Before retiring for the night I have quickly checked out your
suggestion (and don't worry about the change of date to 2009, since
this is the real date I need to deal with):
[alternative=author,
righttext={{ca. 350 BCE/2009}}]
[main::aristotle2009ethics]
produces:
Aristotle ca. 350 BCE/2009
Nearly there, so to get parentheses around it and
produce (Aristotle, ca. 350 BCE/2009), this is how I treated the
entire paragraph where the citation appears:
Aristotle understood that character is formed through repeated
action. We become just or unjust, courageous or cowardly, temperate
or self-indulgent through what we repeatedly choose and practise (\cite
[alternative=author,
righttext={{ca. 350 BCE/2009}}]
[main::aristotle2009ethics]). Actions become habits, habits shape
character, and character influences what becomes easier or harder to
perceive and choose. Human beings remain capable of change, but
freedom gradually acquires a history.
Julian
On 17/8/26 17:35, Jean-Pierre Delange via ntg-context wrote:
No problem at all, Julian — take your time. Translation work has a
way of absorbing the whole day!
I’ll be interested to hear what you get from the test when you have
a chance to try it.
Have a good evening.
JP
Le 17/08/2026 à 09:07, jbf a écrit :
Caught up in other work right now JP (translation), and already
evening here, so it might be tomorrow before I can get back to
this. I'll let you know how it goes.
Julian
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