{ "model": { "rank": 12390, "code": "thing-q25481968", "model_id": "vr.tr.speech-act", "name": "speech act", "purpose": "Let an agent explain speech act theory and its categories, classify utterances as speech acts, describe applications in law, religion and computing, and support learning.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Cross-cutting context", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "XCT", "domain": "XCT.STA", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q25481968/", "tier": 2, "score": 40, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "performative utterance", "perlocutionary act", "speech acts in Islam", "indirect speech act", "phatics", "illocutionary act", "assertion", "locutionary act", "Wikibase claim", "putative" ], "aliasCount": 10, "merged": 10, "knownIn": 40, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.speech-act", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q25481968", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q25481968", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T21:59:31Z", "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": 2, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q25481968", "registryId": "vr.tr.speech-act", "name": "speech act", "version": "0.2.0-wave.2", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "XCT.STA" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q25481968/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.speech-act", "name": "speech act", "purpose": "Let an agent explain speech act theory and its categories, classify utterances as speech acts, describe applications in law, religion and computing, and support learning.", "definition": "An utterance considered as an action performed by a speaker, such as promising, requesting, apologising, warning or declaring, analysed in philosophy of language and linguistics into locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts, direct and indirect speech acts, performative utterances and phatic expressions; speech act theory informs pragmatics, law, religion and the design of conversational systems.", "what_it_is_for": "Understanding utterances as actions.", "affordances": [ "explain speech act categories", "classify utterances", "describe applications", "support learning" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Action by utterance", "Context-dependent force", "Direct or indirect", "Theory-defined" ], "appearance": "Not physical; utterances in context.", "visual_identification": [ "Utterance doing something", "Locution, illocution, perlocution", "A mere sound without communicative intent is not a speech act" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "assertives, directives, commissives, expressives and declarations", "performative utterances", "indirect speech acts", "phatic acts", "speech acts in religious and legal contexts" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "human communication", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "occurrence", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "stylistic device", "why": "rhetorical framing" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "deception", "why": "insincere speech acts" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Legal rules on performative acts such as oaths and contracts", "No regulation of the theory" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Confusing sentence type with illocutionary force", "Ignoring cultural variation", "Misclassifying indirect acts" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "theory", "name": "Theory", "description": "Speech act theory.", "rationale": "Concepts.", "layers": [ { "id": "levels", "name": "Levels", "description": "Locution, illocution, perlocution.", "findings": [ { "id": "levels-finding", "name": "Levels", "description": "Levels.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts, according to Austin and Searle?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "What are felicity conditions?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "types", "name": "Types", "description": "Categories of speech act.", "findings": [ { "id": "types-finding", "name": "Types", "description": "Categories.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are assertives, directives, commissives, expressives and declarations, and what are performative utterances?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "What are phatic expressions?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classify", "name": "Classify", "description": "Analysing utterances.", "rationale": "Practice.", "layers": [ { "id": "analyse", "name": "Analyse", "description": "Classifying an utterance.", "findings": [ { "id": "analyse-finding", "name": "Analyse", "description": "Analysis.", "questions": [ { "text": "What speech act does this utterance perform, and is it direct or indirect?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "How does context determine its force?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "culture", "name": "Culture", "description": "Cultural variation.", "findings": [ { "id": "culture-finding", "name": "Culture", "description": "Cultural variation.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do speech acts such as requests and apologies vary across languages and cultures, according to pragmatics research?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which misunderstandings arise?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "apply", "name": "Apply", "description": "Applications.", "rationale": "Fields.", "layers": [ { "id": "law", "name": "Law", "description": "Law and religion.", "findings": [ { "id": "law-finding", "name": "Law", "description": "Law and religion.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do speech acts function in law, such as oaths, verdicts and contracts, and in religious contexts, such as speech acts in Islamic law, with attribution?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits a specific act?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "computing", "name": "Computing", "description": "Dialogue systems.", "findings": [ { "id": "computing-finding", "name": "Computing", "description": "Computing.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is speech act theory used in dialogue systems and agent communication languages?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How can intents be classified?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "learn", "name": "Learn", "description": "Teaching and history.", "rationale": "Education.", "layers": [ { "id": "teach", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching speech acts.", "findings": [ { "id": "teach-finding", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can speech act theory be taught with examples?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which misconceptions arise?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did speech act theory develop from Austin and Searle, and what critiques exist, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should each speech act category be a separate entry?", "How should pragmatics resources be linked?", "How should applications in computing be linked?" ], "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 speech act, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain speech act theory and its categories, classify utterances as speech acts, describe applications in law, religion and computing, and support learning.", "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: performative utterance, perlocutionary act, speech acts in Islam, indirect speech act, phatics, illocutionary act, assertion, locutionary act, Wikibase claim, putative.", "10 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 40 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 speech act, 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": [ "performative utterance", "perlocutionary act", "speech acts in Islam", "indirect speech act", "phatics", "illocutionary act", "assertion", "locutionary act", "Wikibase claim", "putative" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 40 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 10 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 speech act from another, and a speech act 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 speech act, 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 speech act, 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 speech act 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 speech act, 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 speech act, 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 speech act 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 speech act 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 speech act, 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 speech act, 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 speech act 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 speech act from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a speech act, 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 speech act, 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 speech act 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 speech act 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 speech act between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a speech act, 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 speech act, 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 speech act 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 speech act, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a speech act 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 speech act, 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 speech act, 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 speech act 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 speech act 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 speech act 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 speech act 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 speech act 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 speech act?", "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 speech act?", "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 speech act 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 speech act and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a speech act, 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 speech act, 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 speech act 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 speech act is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a speech act, 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 speech act, 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 speech act 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 } } } }