{ "model": { "rank": 3870, "code": "thing-q189756", "model_id": "vr.tr.question", "name": "question", "purpose": "Let an agent recognise and classify questions, explain how they are formed and answered, distinguish genuine information requests from rhetorical, loaded or complex questions, and apply good practice in asking and answering.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.MED", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q189756/", "tier": 2, "score": 81, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "Quora question", "research question", "Fermi problem", "negative question", "police stop", "complex question", "parliamentary question", "key question", "scientific question", "echo question", "Interrogatories", "current affairs question", "předběžné otázky", "Trick question", "direct question", "litmus test", "closed-ended question", "leading question", "tag question", "suggestive question", "conundrum question", "Gretchenfrage", "open-ended question", "philosophical question", "preliminary questions", "problem question", "Query", "survey question", "quiz question", "double-barreled question", "multiple choice question", "wh-question" ], "aliasCount": 32, "merged": 32, "knownIn": 81, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.question-2", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q189756", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q189756", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T19:59:28Z", "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-Q189756", "registryId": "vr.tr.question", "name": "question", "version": "0.2.0-wave.3", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.MED" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q189756/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.question", "name": "question", "purpose": "Let an agent recognise and classify questions, explain how they are formed and answered, distinguish genuine information requests from rhetorical, loaded or complex questions, and apply good practice in asking and answering.", "definition": "An utterance or written form that requests information, confirmation or a decision from someone, marked in language by word order, particles, intonation or question words; questions are studied in linguistics and logic, structured in surveys, interviews and examinations, and are the basic unit of inquiry in research and of dialogue between people and agents.", "what_it_is_for": "Requesting information, confirmation or decision.", "affordances": [ "classify a question by type and intent", "explain how questions are formed in a language", "detect presuppositions and loaded questions", "apply good practice for surveys and interviews" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Speech act of asking", "Yes-no, alternative and open forms", "Carries presuppositions", "Answer type follows question type" ], "appearance": "A sentence with question form, often ending in a question mark in writing.", "visual_identification": [ "Requests information or confirmation", "Marked by question words, inversion, particles or intonation", "A request for action and a rhetorical statement are different acts" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "yes-no and alternative questions", "wh or open questions", "rhetorical questions", "loaded and complex questions", "research questions", "survey and examination questions", "Fermi and estimation questions" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "information request", "why": "the speech act" }, { "relation": "is answered by", "target": "answer", "why": "the paired act" }, { "relation": "is studied by", "target": "linguistics", "why": "form and meaning" }, { "relation": "is confused with", "target": "request", "why": "a request for action rather than information" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Survey methodology standards for question design", "Rules of evidence on leading questions in courts", "Examination and assessment standards" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Leading and loaded questions biasing answers", "Ambiguous questions", "Answering the presupposition rather than the question", "Mistaking rhetorical for genuine questions" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "form", "name": "Form", "description": "How questions are formed.", "rationale": "Language.", "layers": [ { "id": "grammar", "name": "Grammar", "description": "Question formation.", "findings": [ { "id": "grammar-finding", "name": "Grammar", "description": "Grammar.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are questions formed in a given language, and what types exist?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the utterance a question, a request or a rhetorical statement?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "semantics", "name": "Semantics", "description": "Meaning and answers.", "findings": [ { "id": "semantics-finding", "name": "Semantics", "description": "Semantics.", "questions": [ { "text": "What counts as an answer to each question type, and what does the question presuppose?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits pragmatics?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "ask", "name": "Ask", "description": "Asking well.", "rationale": "Practice.", "layers": [ { "id": "design", "name": "Design", "description": "Question design.", "findings": [ { "id": "design-finding", "name": "Design", "description": "Design.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are survey, interview and examination questions designed to avoid bias and ambiguity?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits survey methodology?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "research", "name": "Research", "description": "Research questions.", "findings": [ { "id": "research-finding", "name": "Research", "description": "Research.", "questions": [ { "text": "What makes a good research question, and how is it refined?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "answer", "name": "Answer", "description": "Answering well.", "rationale": "Practice.", "layers": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "Understanding the question.", "findings": [ { "id": "understand-finding", "name": "Understand", "description": "Understand.", "questions": [ { "text": "How does an agent identify the intent, scope and presuppositions of a question before answering?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Is the question loaded or complex, requiring the presupposition to be addressed?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "respond", "name": "Respond", "description": "Responding.", "findings": [ { "id": "respond-finding", "name": "Respond", "description": "Respond.", "questions": [ { "text": "What makes an answer complete, honest and appropriately scoped?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "When should an agent ask a clarifying question instead?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "study", "name": "Study", "description": "Theory and history.", "rationale": "Study.", "layers": [ { "id": "theory", "name": "Theory", "description": "Theories of questions.", "findings": [ { "id": "theory-finding", "name": "Theory", "description": "Theory.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do logic, semantics and philosophy analyse questions, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits erotetic logic?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "law", "name": "Law", "description": "Questions in law.", "findings": [ { "id": "law-finding", "name": "Law", "description": "Law.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do courts regulate questioning, such as leading questions?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits rules of evidence?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should question types be separate entries?", "How should survey design guidance be linked?", "The registry entry has merged aliases such as a police stop and a website; 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": "work, medium or creative form", "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 question, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent recognise and classify questions, explain how they are formed and answered, distinguish genuine information requests from rhetorical, loaded or complex questions, and apply good practice in asking and answering.", "characteristics": { "substance": "information", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "read and interpreted", "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: Quora question, research question, Fermi problem, negative question, police stop, complex question, parliamentary question, key question, scientific question, echo question, Interrogatories, current affairs question.", "32 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 81 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 question, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "content that has to be carried by something else", "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": [ "read it and act on what it says", "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "What is seen is a copy or a performance, not the work. Recognising the work means recognising the content through whatever is carrying it." ], "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": [ "Quora question", "research question", "Fermi problem", "negative question", "police stop", "complex question", "parliamentary question", "key question", "scientific question", "echo question", "Interrogatories", "current affairs question" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 81 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 32 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 question from another, and a question 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 question, 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 question, 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 question 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 question, 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 question, 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 question 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 question 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 question, 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 question, 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 question 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 question from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a question, 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 question, 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 question 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 question 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 question between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a question, 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 question, 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 question 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 question, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a question 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 question, 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 question, 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 question is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "content-and-access", "name": "Content, encoding and access", "description": "What a question says, how it is encoded and who may read it.", "rationale": "An informational thing carries content that can be copied, versioned and withheld, none of which its physical carrier explains.", "layers": [ { "id": "content-and-encoding", "name": "Content and encoding", "description": "The content itself, its format and its language.", "findings": [ { "id": "content-and-format", "name": "Content, format and language", "description": "What a question contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a question, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the content of a question, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the content of a question is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "access-and-rights", "name": "Access, rights and retention", "description": "Who may read, copy or change it, and for how long it is kept.", "findings": [ { "id": "access-rules", "name": "Access rules and retention", "description": "The permissions attached to a question and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a question, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about access to a question, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once access to a question is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "work-and-manifestation", "name": "Work, version and copy", "description": "Which level of question a statement is about.", "rationale": "The work, the edition, the file and the copy in hand are four things; rights and content attach to different ones.", "layers": [ { "id": "levels", "name": "Levels of the thing", "description": "Work, expression, manifestation and item, in plain terms.", "findings": [ { "id": "level-rules", "name": "What belongs at each level", "description": "Which facts hold for the work and which only for one copy.", "questions": [ { "id": "level-rules-q01", "text": "For question, which facts belong to the work itself, which to a version, and which to a single copy?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "level-rules-q02", "text": "What identifier exists at each level, and which one is being cited?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "versions", "name": "Versions, editions and variants", "description": "How versions differ and which is canonical to whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "version-record", "name": "Versions and canonicity", "description": "Differences that matter and who calls one authoritative.", "questions": [ { "id": "version-record-q01", "text": "Which versions or editions of question exist, and how do they differ substantively?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "version-record-q02", "text": "Who treats which version as authoritative, and for what purpose?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "authorship-and-rights", "name": "Authorship, rights and permitted use", "description": "Who made question and what may be done with it.", "rationale": "Rights are jurisdictional, time-limited and attached to a level, and an agent that ignores that will copy what it may not.", "layers": [ { "id": "authorship", "name": "Authorship and contribution", "description": "Who contributed what, and in what capacity.", "findings": [ { "id": "contribution-record", "name": "Contributors and roles", "description": "The people and bodies behind it, with their roles.", "questions": [ { "id": "contribution-record-q01", "text": "Who authored or contributed to question, in what roles, and how is that attested?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "contribution-record-q02", "text": "Where authorship is disputed or anonymous, what is recorded instead?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "rights", "name": "Rights and permissions", "description": "Which rights subsist, where, until when, and what they permit.", "findings": [ { "id": "rights-record", "name": "Rights, term and permitted acts", "description": "The regime in force and what it allows.", "questions": [ { "id": "rights-record-q01", "text": "What rights subsist in question, in which jurisdictions, and until when?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "rights-record-q02", "text": "Which acts are permitted without further permission, and which must an agent refuse?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a question 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 question and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a question, 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 question, 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 question 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 question is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a question, 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 question, 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 question is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }