diff --git a/misc/payloads.md b/misc/payloads.md
index d4ac3e8..1839543 100644
--- a/misc/payloads.md
+++ b/misc/payloads.md
@@ -1,5 +1,11 @@
 # Payload Handling in Krill
-Apache Lucene supports payloads as arbitrary byte sequences to store information for terms specific to any token position. Krill uses payloads to store various information in a compact way. This documents describes the payload information for index payloads (payloads stored in the index for different term concepts) and computed payloads (payloads created during the retrieval phase).
+Apache Lucene supports payloads as arbitrary byte sequences to store information for terms specific to any token position. Krill uses payloads to store various information in a compact way. This document describes the payload information for index payloads (payloads stored in the index for different term concepts) and computed payloads (payloads created on-the-fly during the retrieval phase).
+
+## Token positions
+Token positions mark the positions between tokens. All tokens are indexed
+at the start position. A simple token always has implicitely an end position of start position ```+ 1```.
+That means, the end position of a span will always be the token position of the
+final token of the span ```+ 1```.
 
 ## Payload Type Identifier (PTI)
 Payloads (both indexed and computed) have a leading byte indicating the type of the payload sequence. This is necessary because the origin (i.e. the requested term) of a payload is lost during the retrieval phase. Payload type identifiers range between 0 and 255 and have the length of a byte (\<b\>). In case a token has no payload, no payload type identifier is stored.
@@ -10,7 +16,7 @@
 ## Index Payloads
 
 ### Token position payloads
-A token always has a special character payload storing the start and end offset of the token. The special character is a reference symbol for this payload, which is an underscore followed by the corresponding token position. For example, the _1$\<i\>0\<i\>3 is the special character payload for the token in position 1 describing that the token ranges from 0 to 3. This offset information is stored in integer.
+A token always has a special character payload storing the start and end offset of the token. The special character is a reference symbol for this payload, which is an underscore followed by the corresponding token position. For example, the _1$\<i\>0\<i\>3 is the special character payload for the token starting at position 1 describing that the token ranges from character 0 to 3. This offset information is stored in integer.
 Token payloads are not retrieved via SpanQueries and therefore do not have a PTI.
 
 ### Token payloads
diff --git a/src/test/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/highlight/TestHighlight.java b/src/test/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/highlight/TestHighlight.java
index 6e24c18..666fd73 100644
--- a/src/test/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/highlight/TestHighlight.java
+++ b/src/test/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/highlight/TestHighlight.java
@@ -444,6 +444,50 @@
                 km.getSnippetHTML());
     };
 
+
+    @Test
+    public void checkSpanHighlights () throws IOException, QueryException {
+
+        KrillIndex ki = new KrillIndex();
+
+        FieldDocument fd = new FieldDocument();
+        fd.addString("ID", "doc-1");
+        fd.addString("UID", "1");
+        fd.addString("textSigle", "c1/d1/1");
+        fd.addTV("base", "abc",
+                "[(0-1)s:a|i:a|_0#0-1|-:t$<i>3|<>:base/t:t$<b>64<i>0<i>3<i>3<b>0]" +
+                 "[(1-2)s:b|i:b|base/l:B|_1#1-2|<>:corenlp/x:a$<b>64<i>1<i>2<i>2<b0>]" +
+                 "[(2-3)s:c|i:c|base/l:C|_2#2-3]");
+        ki.addDoc(fd);
+        ki.commit();
+
+        QueryBuilder kq = new QueryBuilder("base");
+        Result kr = ki
+            .search((SpanQuery) kq.tag("base/t:t").toQuery());
+
+        Match km = kr.getMatch(0);
+        assertEquals(km.getStartPos(), 0);
+        assertEquals(km.getEndPos(), 3);
+        assertEquals("match-c1/d1/1-p0-3",km.getID());
+
+        km = ki.getMatchInfo("match-c1/d1/1-p0-3", "base", true,
+                (ArrayList) null, (ArrayList) null, true, true, false);
+        assertEquals(0, km.getStartPos());
+        assertEquals(3, km.getEndPos());
+        assertEquals("<span class=\"context-left\"></span>" +
+                     "<span class=\"match\">"+
+                     "<mark>"+
+                     "<span title=\"base/t:t\">a"+
+                     "<span title=\"base/l:B\">"+
+                     "<span title=\"corenlp/x:a\">b</span>"+
+                     "</span>"+
+                     "<span title=\"base/l:C\">c</span>"+
+                     "</span>"+
+                     "</mark>"+
+                     "</span>"+
+                     "<span class=\"context-right\"></span>", km.getSnippetHTML());
+    };
+    
 	
     @Test
     public void highlightEmptySpan () throws IOException, QueryException {
diff --git a/src/test/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/index/TestElementIndex.java b/src/test/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/index/TestElementIndex.java
index 5cd2d80..6d5d49a 100644
--- a/src/test/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/index/TestElementIndex.java
+++ b/src/test/java/de/ids_mannheim/korap/index/TestElementIndex.java
@@ -4,7 +4,10 @@
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 
+import org.apache.lucene.index.Term;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.spans.SpanQuery;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.spans.SpanTermQuery;
+
 import org.junit.Test;
 import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
 import org.junit.runners.JUnit4;
@@ -26,7 +29,7 @@
         // <a>x<a>y<a>zhij</a>hij</a>hij</a>hij</a>
         FieldDocument fd = new FieldDocument();
         fd.addTV("base", "x  y  z  h  i  j  h  i  j  h  i  j  ",
-                "[(0-3)s:x|<>:a$<b>64<i>0<i>3<i>12<b>0]"
+                "[(0-3)s:x|<>:a$<b>64<i>0<i>3<i>12<b>0||<>:b$<b>64<i>0<i>3<i>1<b>0]"
                         + "[(3-6)s:y|<>:a$<b>64<i>3<i>6<i>9<b>0]"
                         + "[(6-9)s:z|<>:a$<b>64<i>6<i>9<i>6]"
                         + "[(9-12)s:h<b>0]" + "[(12-15)s:i]" + "[(15-18)s:j]"
@@ -70,7 +73,23 @@
         assertEquals("StartPos (2)", 2, kr.getMatch(5).startPos);
         assertEquals("EndPos (2)", 6, kr.getMatch(5).endPos);
 
-        // System.err.println(kr.toJSON());
+        sq = new SpanTermQuery(new Term("base", "s:x"));
+
+        kr = ki.search(sq, (short) 10);
+
+        assertEquals("totalResults", kr.getTotalResults(), 2);
+        
+        assertEquals("StartPos (0)", 0, kr.getMatch(0).startPos);
+        assertEquals("EndPos (0)", 1, kr.getMatch(0).endPos);
+
+        sq = new SpanElementQuery("base", "b");
+
+        kr = ki.search(sq, (short) 10);
+
+        assertEquals("totalResults", kr.getTotalResults(), 1);
+
+        assertEquals("StartPos (0)", 0, kr.getMatch(0).startPos);
+        assertEquals("EndPos (0)", 1, kr.getMatch(0).endPos);
     };