{ "model": { "rank": 4861, "code": "thing-q177691", "model_id": "vr.tr.tense", "name": "tense", "purpose": "Let an agent explain tense as a grammatical category, distinguish it from aspect, mood and time itself, relay how particular languages mark tense from descriptive grammars, and support learning, translation and analysis questions.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Cross-cutting context", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "XCT", "domain": "XCT.QLT", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q177691/", "tier": 2, "score": 72, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "nonpresent tense", "Infinitivo pessoal", "Periodic tense", "cyclic tense", "nonpast tense", "English tense", "preterite", "relative and absolute tense", "crastinal tense", "hodiernal tense", "praesens", "Latin tense", "nonfuture tense", "nonpast conditional", "perfect tenses in English", "ḫamṭu", "passé simple", "absolute tense", "relative tense" ], "aliasCount": 19, "merged": 19, "knownIn": 72, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q177691", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q177691", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T19:44:28Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 3, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q177691", "registryId": "vr.tr.tense", "name": "tense", "version": "0.2.0-wave.3", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "XCT.QLT" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q177691/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.tense", "name": "tense", "purpose": "Let an agent explain tense as a grammatical category, distinguish it from aspect, mood and time itself, relay how particular languages mark tense from descriptive grammars, and support learning, translation and analysis questions.", "definition": "A grammatical category that locates a situation in time relative to the moment of speaking or another reference point, typically past, present and future, marked on verbs by inflection or auxiliaries; languages differ in how many tenses they mark and how tense interacts with aspect and mood, and some languages mark no tense at all.", "what_it_is_for": "Locating situations in time in grammar.", "affordances": [ "explain tense and its relation to aspect and mood", "describe the tense system of a language from grammars", "analyse a verb form for tense", "support learning and translation" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Grammatical, not merely semantic time", "Relative to a reference point", "Varies across languages, including absence", "Bundled with aspect and mood in many systems" ], "appearance": "Not visible; seen in verb forms and auxiliaries.", "visual_identification": [ "Verb marking that locates an event in time", "Interacts with aspect and mood in tense-aspect-mood systems", "Time as such and aspect are separate concepts" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "absolute tenses: past, present, future", "relative tenses such as pluperfect and future perfect", "remoteness distinctions such as hodiernal and remote past", "tenseless systems that rely on aspect and adverbs", "tense in specific languages such as English" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "grammatical category", "why": "a category of the verb" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "grammatical aspect", "why": "often marked together" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "grammatical mood", "why": "part of the tense-aspect-mood complex" }, { "relation": "is confused with", "target": "time", "why": "the concept tense encodes" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "No regulation; descriptive grammars and linguistic typology databases describe systems" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Confusing tense with aspect or with time", "Assuming all languages mark tense like English", "Prescriptive rules presented as universal" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "concept", "name": "Concept", "description": "What tense is.", "rationale": "Definition.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is tense, and how does it relate to a reference point in time?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about tense, aspect, mood or time itself?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "systems", "name": "Systems", "description": "Tense systems.", "findings": [ { "id": "systems-finding", "name": "Systems", "description": "Systems.", "questions": [ { "text": "What kinds of tense systems exist across languages, including tenseless ones?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific language?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "analyse", "name": "Analyse", "description": "Analysing forms.", "rationale": "Analysis.", "layers": [ { "id": "forms", "name": "Forms", "description": "Marking.", "findings": [ { "id": "forms-finding", "name": "Forms", "description": "Forms.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is tense marked in a given language, by inflection, auxiliaries or particles?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which grammar describes the system?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "interaction", "name": "Interaction", "description": "With aspect and mood.", "findings": [ { "id": "interaction-finding", "name": "Interaction", "description": "Interaction.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do tense, aspect and mood combine in the language, and how is a form analysed?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which entry fits aspect?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "use", "name": "Use", "description": "Learning and translation.", "rationale": "Use.", "layers": [ { "id": "learning", "name": "Learning", "description": "Learning.", "findings": [ { "id": "learning-finding", "name": "Learning", "description": "Learning.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is tense taught to learners, and what errors are common?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the user asking for a correction of their own text, which needs the specific language entry?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "translation", "name": "Translation", "description": "Translation.", "findings": [ { "id": "translation-finding", "name": "Translation", "description": "Translation.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are tense differences handled in translation between languages?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which entry fits translation?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "study", "name": "Study", "description": "Theory and typology.", "rationale": "Study.", "layers": [ { "id": "theory", "name": "Theory", "description": "Theories of tense.", "findings": [ { "id": "theory-finding", "name": "Theory", "description": "Theory.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do semantic theories model tense, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "typology", "name": "Typology", "description": "Typology.", "findings": [ { "id": "typology-finding", "name": "Typology", "description": "Typology.", "questions": [ { "text": "What does typology say about the distribution of tense systems?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which databases document tense marking?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should tense systems of individual languages be separate entries?", "How should typological databases be linked?", "The registry entry has merged aliases naming specific language tenses; should they be split off?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a tense, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain tense as a grammatical category, distinguish it from aspect, mood and time itself, relay how particular languages mark tense from descriptive grammars, and support learning, translation and analysis questions.", "characteristics": { "substance": "abstract", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: nonpresent tense, Infinitivo pessoal, Periodic tense, cyclic tense, nonpast tense, English tense, preterite, relative and absolute tense, crastinal tense, hodiernal tense, praesens, Latin tense.", "19 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 72 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a tense, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "an abstraction with no physical instance", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "nonpresent tense", "Infinitivo pessoal", "Periodic tense", "cyclic tense", "nonpast tense", "English tense", "preterite", "relative and absolute tense", "crastinal tense", "hodiernal tense", "praesens", "Latin tense" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 72 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 19 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one tense from another, and a tense from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a tense, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a tense, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a tense is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a tense, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a tense, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a tense is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a tense sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a tense, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a tense, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a tense is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a tense from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a tense, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a tense, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a tense is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a tense passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a tense between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a tense, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a tense, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a tense is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a tense, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a tense is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a tense, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a tense, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a tense is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What tense is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of tense are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is tense operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of tense and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of tense?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as tense?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a tense came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a tense and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a tense, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a tense, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a tense is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a tense is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a tense, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a tense, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a tense is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 5, "layers": 10, "findings": 12, "questions": 32 } } } }