{"schema":"https://ver.cy/schemas/card/1.0.0","id":"vr.tr.fable","code":"thing-q693","url":"https://ver.cy/models/thing/q693/","name":"fable","alternateNames":[],"kind":"thing","status":"published","version":"0.1.0-research.1","language":"en","classifiers":{"family":"Thing Registry","category":"Information and virtual systems","entryKind":"thing","plane":"INF","domain":["INF.MED"],"industry":[],"navPath":"","tags":[],"facets":{}},"whatItIs":"A fable is a short didactic narrative, in prose or verse, whose agents are typically animals, plants, objects, or personified abstractions acting as conventional social types, so that the episode yields a general moral or prudential claim, often stated as a promythium or epimythium.","purpose":"Enable an AI agent to recognise a fable, assess how its narrative supports a lesson, and decide how it may be interpreted, compared, adapted or used.","scope":{"in":["Evidence for recognising a narrative as a fable, including uncertain or contested classifications","Characters, attributed capacities, choices and consequences that carry the lesson","Explicit morals and interpretations inferred from the narrative","Differences between tellings that preserve or alter the fable's identity and lesson","Suitability of a particular telling for a proposed audience, adaptation or teaching use"],"out":["The physical or digital carrier, file format and preservation state of an edition","The complete collection, anthology or curriculum containing the fable","Biographies of attributed authors, translators and collectors","General models of myths, parables, proverbs, fairy tales and jokes","Independent verification of real-world claims suggested by the moral"],"boundaries":[]},"distinguishingFeatures":["A candidate contains a narrated situation, action or change whose consequences support a generalisable lesson; a bare maxim lacks this narrative enactment.","Characters can be assessed as carriers of contrasting behaviours or dispositions, with the plot testing those behaviours rather than merely announcing advice.","Animal or object characters may act with human capacities, but their presence alone does not establish a fable and their absence does not automatically exclude one.","A proposed moral can be traced to particular choices and outcomes in the story; an attached lesson with no clear narrative support requires a recorded qualification.","Where a story also resembles a parable, allegory or joke, its classification records narrative evidence and the relevant tradition rather than relying solely on length, character species or a surprising ending."],"structure":{"bundles":[{"id":"fable-identity","name":"Fable identity","description":"Establishes what narrative is being modelled and why it is treated as a fable.","layers":[{"id":"genre-evidence","name":"Genre evidence","description":"Tests the relationship between narrative action and a generalisable lesson.","findings":[{"id":"narrative-lesson-test","name":"Narrative lesson test","description":"Records the evidence supporting or challenging classification as a fable.","questions":[{"text":"What narrated action and consequence make this a candidate fable rather than a bare maxim or description?","id":"narrative-lesson-test-q01","kind":"definition"},{"text":"What evidence distinguishes it from a neighbouring parable, allegory, joke or animal tale, and where does classification remain contested?","id":"narrative-lesson-test-q02","kind":"boundary"}]}]},{"id":"identity-anchor","name":"Identity anchor","description":"Identifies the telling under examination and its proposed connection to the registered fable.","findings":[{"id":"telling-identification","name":"Telling identification","description":"Anchors analysis in an identifiable text or performance without assuming that a shared title establishes identity.","questions":[{"text":"Which text, recording or documented performance supplies the narrative being analysed?","id":"telling-identification-q01","kind":"provenance"},{"text":"Which combination of character roles, central encounter and outcome identifies this fable when titles or character names differ?","id":"telling-identification-q02","kind":"definition"}]}]}]},{"id":"lesson-bearing-narrative","name":"Lesson-bearing narrative","description":"Records the characters and causal events through which the fable makes its lesson intelligible.","layers":[{"id":"character-functions","name":"Character functions","description":"Examines character contrasts and the capacities needed for their actions.","findings":[{"id":"roles-and-attributed-capacities","name":"Roles and attributed capacities","description":"Distinguishes properties stated in the telling from traits supplied by interpretive convention.","questions":[{"text":"Which characters carry the relevant contrasts, such as strength and cunning or preparation and neglect?","id":"roles-and-attributed-capacities-q01","kind":"definition"},{"text":"Which capacities and dispositions are shown in the telling, and which are being inferred from a character's species or conventional reputation?","id":"roles-and-attributed-capacities-q02","kind":"boundary"}]}]},{"id":"choice-and-consequence","name":"Choice and consequence","description":"Locates the events that connect behaviour to the ending.","findings":[{"id":"causal-turn","name":"Causal turn","description":"Records the decisive choice or event and whether the outcome follows from it.","questions":[{"text":"Which choice, mistake, deception or external event changes the characters' fortunes?","id":"causal-turn-q01","kind":"definition"},{"text":"Does the consequence follow from the behaviour addressed by the proposed moral, or does it depend on luck, coercion or an unexplained intervention?","id":"causal-turn-q02","kind":"boundary"}]}]}]},{"id":"moral-and-interpretation","name":"Moral and interpretation","description":"Separates what the telling says from the lessons readers draw and tests the support for each.","layers":[{"id":"moral-expression","name":"Moral expression","description":"Records the wording, placement and voice of any explicit lesson.","findings":[{"id":"stated-versus-inferred-moral","name":"Stated versus inferred moral","description":"Keeps explicit instruction distinct from character speech, editorial additions and analyst interpretation.","questions":[{"text":"What lesson is explicitly stated, where does it appear, and who voices it?","id":"stated-versus-inferred-moral-q01","kind":"definition"},{"text":"What evidence establishes whether that lesson belongs to the examined telling or was supplied by an editor, translator or interpreter?","id":"stated-versus-inferred-moral-q02","kind":"provenance"}]}]},{"id":"interpretive-support","name":"Interpretive support","description":"Tests candidate lessons against the events and perspectives of the narrative.","findings":[{"id":"competing-lessons","name":"Competing lessons","description":"Records supported readings, tensions and unresolved alternatives without forcing one authoritative moral.","questions":[{"text":"Which actions and outcomes support each candidate moral, and which details resist it?","id":"competing-lessons-q01","kind":"definition"},{"text":"How would the lesson change if the story were interpreted from the losing, deceived or less powerful character's perspective?","id":"competing-lessons-q02","kind":"boundary"}]}]}]},{"id":"tellings-and-transformation","name":"Tellings and transformation","description":"Tracks relationships and meaningful differences between versions of the fable.","layers":[{"id":"transmission-evidence","name":"Transmission evidence","description":"Records documented attribution and relationships without treating resemblance as proof of descent.","findings":[{"id":"attribution-and-lineage","name":"Attribution and lineage","description":"Distinguishes credited authorship, collection, translation and adaptation from evidenced transmission.","questions":[{"text":"Who is credited with composing, collecting, translating or adapting this telling, and what source supports each credit?","id":"attribution-and-lineage-q01","kind":"provenance"},{"text":"Is its relationship to another telling documented, inferred from similarity or unresolved?","id":"attribution-and-lineage-q02","kind":"provenance"}]}]},{"id":"semantic-variation","name":"Semantic variation","description":"Compares versions through the elements that carry or qualify the lesson.","findings":[{"id":"lesson-changing-differences","name":"Lesson-changing differences","description":"Identifies substitutions, omissions and additions that affect interpretation or identity.","questions":[{"text":"Which differences in character roles, decisive actions, ending or moral change what the fable appears to teach?","id":"lesson-changing-differences-q01","kind":"boundary"},{"text":"Which elements must a proposed adaptation preserve to retain the intended lesson, and which changes should be declared?","id":"lesson-changing-differences-q02","kind":"action"}]}]}]},{"id":"audience-and-application","name":"Audience and application","description":"Assesses how a particular telling can be presented and how far its lesson can reasonably be applied.","layers":[{"id":"audience-fit","name":"Audience fit","description":"Examines the content and interpretive demands relevant to a specified use.","findings":[{"id":"presentation-demands","name":"Presentation demands","description":"Records what an audience needs to understand the telling and what content may require contextualisation.","questions":[{"text":"What language, cultural associations, irony or unstated assumptions must the intended audience understand to follow the lesson?","id":"presentation-demands-q01","kind":"boundary"},{"text":"What contextualisation or adaptation is needed for the proposed audience given this telling's depictions of harm, deception or stereotyped traits?","id":"presentation-demands-q02","kind":"action"}]}]},{"id":"application-limits","name":"Application limits","description":"Checks the analogy between the fable's situation and a proposed practical use.","findings":[{"id":"analogy-and-counterexample","name":"Analogy and counterexample","description":"Records the conditions under which a lesson is relevant and the differences that weaken its application.","questions":[{"text":"Which roles, incentives, choices and consequences in the target situation correspond to those in the fable?","id":"analogy-and-counterexample-q01","kind":"boundary"},{"text":"What missing condition or counterexample would make applying this moral misleading, and how should the agent qualify its use?","id":"analogy-and-counterexample-q02","kind":"action"}]}]}]},{"id":"evidence-and-external-alignment","name":"Evidence and external alignment","description":"What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.","layers":[{"id":"reported-evidence","name":"Reported evidence","description":"Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.","findings":[{"id":"evidence-kinds","name":"Kinds and varieties","description":"Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of fable this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-kinds-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-identifiers","name":"Identifiers and schemes","description":"Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of fable this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-identifiers-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-standards-and-regulation","name":"Standards and regulation","description":"Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of fable this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-standards-and-regulation-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-real-world-use","name":"Real-world use","description":"Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of fable this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-real-world-use-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-measurements","name":"Typical measurements","description":"Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of fable this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-measurements-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards","name":"Failure modes and hazards","description":"Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of fable this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-regional-variation","name":"Regional variation","description":"Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of fable this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-regional-variation-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-neighbours","name":"Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart","description":"Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of fable this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-neighbours-q01","kind":"provenance"}]}]}]}]},"agentConduct":{"may":["Retell and explain fables with their source tradition and moral.","Help write new fables on request."],"mustNot":["Attribute a fable to a named fabulist without evidence.","Present a moral drawn from a fable as settled guidance for a real person's case.","Reproduce a modern copyrighted fable collection in full."],"requiresHuman":["Publishing a fable adapted from a living author's work."]},"ethics":{"considerations":["Fables teach children values, and the morals reflect the society that made them.","Animal types in fables can carry stereotypes about groups of people."],"affectedParties":["Children","Readers","Cultural communities"]},"owners":{"steward":"The public for traditional fables; authors and publishers for modern ones.","roles":[],"masterSystems":[]},"relations":[{"target":"Q109588548","type":"parent","note":"registry parent class"},{"target":"Q1221280","type":"parent","note":"registry parent class"}],"interaction":{"identity":{"applicability":"required","items":["Vercy registry: vr.tr.fable","Wikidata: Q693 (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q693)"]},"properties":{"applicability":"not-applicable","items":["Fable classification: proposed | supported | contested | excluded","Character embodiment: human | animal | plant | object | supernatural | mixed; multiple values allowed","Lesson-bearing causal chain: character disposition or choice → action → consequence → candidate lesson","Moral presentation: explicit before narrative | explicit after narrative | spoken within narrative | implicit | multiple; assessed per telling","Moral support: supported by recorded narrative evidence | partly supported | contradicted | unresolved; assessed per candidate moral","Telling relationship: translation of | retelling of | adaptation of | possible variant of | shares motif with; evidence and uncertainty recorded","Intended application: candidate moral → proposed real-world situation, with matching conditions and limits"]},"recognition":{"applicability":"not-applicable","items":[]},"capabilities":{"applicability":"required","items":["Classify a candidate narrative as a fable with supporting evidence and unresolved boundaries.","Trace a proposed moral through character choices and consequences.","Compare tellings to identify changes in agency, outcome and lesson.","Produce an adaptation while recording which lesson-bearing elements it preserves or changes.","Select a telling for a specified audience and purpose using its content and interpretive demands.","Challenge an overextended application by identifying where the target situation differs from the story."]},"hazards":{"applicability":"required","items":["Presenting a fable's moral as universally valid can encourage oversimplified judgments about complex situations.","Uncritical use of conventional character types can reinforce stereotypes or stigmatize groups.","Treating fictional animal behavior as factual can create misconceptions about animals."]},"interfaces":{"applicability":"required","items":["The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, adopted by its contracting states and administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization, provides the international copyright framework for qualifying fable texts and adaptations."]},"context":{"applicability":"required","items":["Fables occur in oral storytelling, literature and educational materials where a brief fictional episode communicates a moral lesson.","They are used to discuss conduct, compare interpretations and express social criticism through nonhuman characters."]}},"sources":[{"title":"Babrius and Phaedrus (Loeb Classical Library), including the Perry Index of the Aesopic corpus","url":"","note":"Classical definition of the Aesopic unit, verse versus prose vehicles, and the numbering scheme still used for individual Greek and Latin fables."},{"title":"The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography (FF Communications)","url":"","note":"The ATU type-index against which animal tales and fable-like plots are catalogued in folklore archives, and the distinction between animal tale and didactic fable."},{"title":"History of the Graeco-Latin Fable","url":"","note":"The Graeco-Latin corpus, its Indian and Near Eastern contacts, and the later European literary fable as a continuous but not identical tradition."},{"title":"fable","url":"https://www.britannica.com/art/fable","note":"The received specialist contrast of fable with parable, allegory, and fairy tale, and the main Eurasian collection lineages."},{"title":"Wikidata item Q693: fable","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q693","note":"identity and sense of the item"},{"title":"Wikipedia: Fable","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fable","note":"general description of the item"}],"openQuestions":["Which scholarly or tradition-specific criteria should govern borderline classification between fable, parable, apologue and animal tale?","What evidence threshold should establish that two tellings instantiate one registered fable rather than merely sharing a motif?","How should an early or widely circulated telling be selected as a comparison anchor when origins and authorship are disputed?","How should the model represent deliberately ambiguous, satirical or inverted fables whose endings undermine an apparent moral?","Which audience-fit judgments can be supported by documented reception or comprehension evidence, and which must remain contextual assessments?"],"resources":{"spec":"/models/things/publications/thing-q693/spec.json"},"provenance":{"origin":"thing registry research (pass 2)","builtFrom":["models/things/publications/thing-q693/spec.json"],"providers":["Codex","Grok"],"researchStatus":"unreviewed","generatedAt":"2026-09-07T10:02:08Z","builder":"tools/build_cards.py@1.0.0"},"completeness":{"sections":{"classifiers":"filled","whatItIs":"filled","purpose":"filled","distinguishingFeatures":"filled","structure":"filled","agentConduct":"filled","ethics":"filled","owners":"filled","relations":"filled","interaction.identity":"filled","interaction.properties":"not-applicable","interaction.recognition":"not-applicable","interaction.capabilities":"filled","interaction.hazards":"filled","interaction.interfaces":"filled","interaction.context":"filled","sources":"filled"},"notes":{"_gate":"Published through the thing publication gate 1.0 on 2026-10-07T10:10:32+00:00: completeness 1.00; sense: Wikidata description; 2 live sources; review by codex: pass","interaction.properties":"Plane INF: no invented physical properties.","interaction.recognition":"A fable is a narrative form identified through its content and structure, without a distinctive physical appearance."},"score":1.0}}