{
    "model": {
        "rank": 2184,
        "code": "thing-q34228",
        "model_id": "vr.tr.sign-language",
        "name": "sign language",
        "purpose": "Let an agent explain sign languages as natural languages and their diversity, describe their grammar, communities and recognition, support learning and access questions, and address misconceptions, describing deaf communities in their own terms.",
        "family": "Thing Registry",
        "category": "Information and virtual systems",
        "status": "research-draft",
        "kind": "thing",
        "plane": "INF",
        "domain": "INF.MED",
        "industry": "",
        "version": "",
        "url": "/models/thing/q34228/",
        "tier": 2,
        "score": 113,
        "payload": {
            "layer": "wikidata",
            "aliases": [
                "non-deaf sign language",
                "deaf sign language",
                "Arab sign-language family",
                "Japanese Sign Language family",
                "family sign language",
                "Sign Language in Örebro",
                "manually coded language",
                "diving sign language",
                "Providencia–Cayman Sign Language family",
                "Paraguay–Uruguay Sign Language family",
                "Old Chiangmai–Bangkok Sign Language family",
                "Danish Sign Language family",
                "BANZSL",
                "Nicaraguan Sign Language",
                "International Sign",
                "home sign",
                "contact sign",
                "French Sign Language family",
                "German Sign Language family",
                "Spanish Sign language family",
                "Swedish Sign Language family",
                "sign language in Suriname",
                "Kuwaiti Sign Language",
                "Yemeni Sign Language",
                "manually coded English",
                "Mouth-hand system",
                "Indian Signing System",
                "Signed Italian",
                "manually coded language in South Africa",
                "signed French",
                "cued speech",
                "Fiji Sign Language",
                "Maritime Sign Language",
                "Dutch-Belgian Sign Languages",
                "Austro-Hungarian sign languages",
                "Swiss-French Sign Language",
                "Tajik sign language",
                "Bolivian Sign Language",
                "Selangor Sign Language",
                "Swiss-German Sign Language"
            ],
            "aliasCount": 49,
            "merged": 49,
            "knownIn": 113,
            "facets": null,
            "markers": [],
            "lexicalClass": "",
            "senseRank": null,
            "alsoRegisteredAs": null,
            "source": {
                "dataset": "wikidata",
                "item": "Q34228",
                "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q34228",
                "license": "CC0 1.0"
            }
        },
        "research": {
            "vercy": "1.0-draft",
            "publication": {
                "status": "research-draft",
                "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed",
                "publishableCanonical": false,
                "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T05:34:48Z",
                "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-Q34228",
                "registryId": "vr.tr.sign-language",
                "name": "sign language",
                "version": "0.2.0-wave.2",
                "entryKind": "thing",
                "family": "Thing Registry",
                "domain": [
                    "INF.MED"
                ],
                "status": "research-draft"
            },
            "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q34228/",
            "model": {
                "registry_id": "vr.tr.sign-language",
                "name": "sign language",
                "purpose": "Let an agent explain sign languages as natural languages and their diversity, describe their grammar, communities and recognition, support learning and access questions, and address misconceptions, describing deaf communities in their own terms.",
                "definition": "A language expressed through hand shapes, movement, facial expression and body posture rather than sound, used primarily by deaf communities as natural languages with their own grammar and vocabulary, in hundreds of distinct languages and families such as the Japanese Sign Language family and Arab sign languages, alongside village sign languages, family sign systems and manual codes for spoken languages; sign languages are full languages, recognised officially in many countries and studied in linguistics.",
                "what_it_is_for": "Languages expressed by hands and body.",
                "affordances": [
                    "explain sign languages as languages",
                    "describe diversity and grammar",
                    "support learning and access",
                    "address misconceptions"
                ],
                "distinguishing_features": [
                    "Visual-manual modality",
                    "Full grammar",
                    "Community languages",
                    "Legal recognition"
                ],
                "appearance": "Signed communication using hands, face and body.",
                "visual_identification": [
                    "Natural language in the visual-manual modality",
                    "Hundreds of distinct languages and families",
                    "Fingerspelling represents written words; gesture is not language; manual codes follow spoken grammar"
                ],
                "physical_properties": [],
                "families_and_kinds": [
                    "national deaf sign languages",
                    "sign language families",
                    "village and shared sign languages",
                    "family and home sign systems",
                    "manually coded spoken languages and tactile signing"
                ],
                "related_models": [
                    {
                        "relation": "is a kind of",
                        "target": "signed language",
                        "why": "category"
                    },
                    {
                        "relation": "is a kind of",
                        "target": "manual communication",
                        "why": "category"
                    },
                    {
                        "relation": "is related to",
                        "target": "Braille script",
                        "why": "another accessibility-related communication system"
                    },
                    {
                        "relation": "is related to",
                        "target": "multilingualism",
                        "why": "bilingualism in signed and spoken languages"
                    }
                ],
                "identifiers": [],
                "standards_and_regulation": [
                    "Legal recognition of sign languages",
                    "Accessibility and interpreting standards",
                    "Education policy for deaf children"
                ],
                "failure_modes_and_hazards": [
                    "Treating sign language as universal or as gesture",
                    "Excluding deaf perspectives",
                    "Confusing sign languages with manual codes"
                ],
                "in_scope": [],
                "out_of_scope": [],
                "characteristics": []
            },
            "sources": [],
            "structure": {
                "bundles": [
                    {
                        "id": "understand",
                        "name": "Understand",
                        "description": "What sign languages are.",
                        "rationale": "Linguistics.",
                        "layers": [
                            {
                                "id": "concept",
                                "name": "Concept",
                                "description": "Concept and status.",
                                "findings": [
                                    {
                                        "id": "concept-finding",
                                        "name": "Concept",
                                        "description": "Concept.",
                                        "questions": [
                                            {
                                                "text": "What is a sign language, why is it a full natural language, and how does it differ from gesture and manual codes?",
                                                "kind": "definition"
                                            },
                                            {
                                                "text": "Which sign language is meant?",
                                                "kind": "boundary"
                                            }
                                        ]
                                    }
                                ]
                            },
                            {
                                "id": "grammar",
                                "name": "Grammar",
                                "description": "Grammar.",
                                "findings": [
                                    {
                                        "id": "grammar-finding",
                                        "name": "Grammar",
                                        "description": "Grammar.",
                                        "questions": [
                                            {
                                                "text": "How do sign languages use hand shape, movement, space and facial expression grammatically?",
                                                "kind": "provenance"
                                            },
                                            {
                                                "text": "Which entry fits sign language linguistics?",
                                                "kind": "action"
                                            }
                                        ]
                                    }
                                ]
                            }
                        ]
                    },
                    {
                        "id": "diversity",
                        "name": "Diversity",
                        "description": "Diversity and communities.",
                        "rationale": "Attribution.",
                        "layers": [
                            {
                                "id": "languages",
                                "name": "Languages",
                                "description": "Languages and families.",
                                "findings": [
                                    {
                                        "id": "languages-finding",
                                        "name": "Languages",
                                        "description": "Languages.",
                                        "questions": [
                                            {
                                                "text": "How many sign languages exist, and how are families such as the Japanese and Arab sign language groups related?",
                                                "kind": "provenance"
                                            },
                                            {
                                                "text": "Which entry fits a specific language?",
                                                "kind": "action"
                                            }
                                        ]
                                    }
                                ]
                            },
                            {
                                "id": "communities",
                                "name": "Communities",
                                "description": "Deaf communities.",
                                "findings": [
                                    {
                                        "id": "communities-finding",
                                        "name": "Communities",
                                        "description": "Communities.",
                                        "questions": [
                                            {
                                                "text": "How do deaf communities describe their languages and cultures in their own terms?",
                                                "kind": "provenance"
                                            },
                                            {
                                                "text": "Is the presentation respectful and attributed?",
                                                "kind": "boundary"
                                            }
                                        ]
                                    }
                                ]
                            }
                        ]
                    },
                    {
                        "id": "access",
                        "name": "Access",
                        "description": "Learning and access.",
                        "rationale": "Practice.",
                        "layers": [
                            {
                                "id": "learn",
                                "name": "Learn",
                                "description": "Learning.",
                                "findings": [
                                    {
                                        "id": "learn-finding",
                                        "name": "Learn",
                                        "description": "Learning.",
                                        "questions": [
                                            {
                                                "text": "How can a sign language be learned, and which resources are recommended by deaf organisations?",
                                                "kind": "provenance"
                                            },
                                            {
                                                "text": "Which entry fits language learning?",
                                                "kind": "action"
                                            }
                                        ]
                                    }
                                ]
                            },
                            {
                                "id": "interpreting",
                                "name": "Interpreting",
                                "description": "Interpreting and rights.",
                                "findings": [
                                    {
                                        "id": "interpreting-finding",
                                        "name": "Interpreting",
                                        "description": "Interpreting.",
                                        "questions": [
                                            {
                                                "text": "What rights to interpreting and accessible services exist, and how is sign language recognised in law?",
                                                "kind": "provenance"
                                            },
                                            {
                                                "text": "Which entry fits accessibility law?",
                                                "kind": "action"
                                            }
                                        ]
                                    }
                                ]
                            }
                        ]
                    },
                    {
                        "id": "learn",
                        "name": "Learn",
                        "description": "History and teaching.",
                        "rationale": "Education.",
                        "layers": [
                            {
                                "id": "history",
                                "name": "History",
                                "description": "History.",
                                "findings": [
                                    {
                                        "id": "history-finding",
                                        "name": "History",
                                        "description": "History.",
                                        "questions": [
                                            {
                                                "text": "How did sign languages and deaf education develop, including periods of suppression, according to historians and deaf communities?",
                                                "kind": "provenance"
                                            },
                                            {
                                                "text": "Which references are standard?",
                                                "kind": "provenance"
                                            }
                                        ]
                                    }
                                ]
                            },
                            {
                                "id": "teach",
                                "name": "Teach",
                                "description": "Teaching.",
                                "findings": [
                                    {
                                        "id": "teach-finding",
                                        "name": "Teach",
                                        "description": "Teaching.",
                                        "questions": [
                                            {
                                                "text": "How can sign languages be taught and included in schools?",
                                                "kind": "action"
                                            },
                                            {
                                                "text": "Which misconceptions arise?",
                                                "kind": "provenance"
                                            }
                                        ]
                                    }
                                ]
                            }
                        ]
                    }
                ]
            },
            "openQuestions": [
                "Should each sign language be a separate entry?",
                "How should deaf organisations be linked?",
                "How should interpreting services be linked?"
            ],
            "statistics": {
                "bundles": 4,
                "layers": 8,
                "findings": 8,
                "questions": 16
            }
        },
        "draft": {
            "generator": "vr.draft.v3",
            "status": "draft-generated",
            "researched": false,
            "archetype": "language",
            "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 sign language, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.",
            "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain sign languages as natural languages and their diversity, describe their grammar, communities and recognition, support learning and access questions, and address misconceptions, describing deaf communities in their own terms.",
            "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: non-deaf sign language, deaf sign language, Arab sign-language family, Japanese Sign Language family, family sign language, Sign Language in Örebro, manually coded language, diving sign language, Providencia–Cayman Sign Language family, Paraguay–Uruguay Sign Language family, Old Chiangmai–Bangkok Sign Language family, Danish Sign Language family.",
                "49 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.",
                "Described in 113 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 sign language, 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": [
                "Recognised from text or speech by script, vocabulary and grammar - and script is the weakest of the three, since several languages share one."
            ],
            "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": [
                        "non-deaf sign language",
                        "deaf sign language",
                        "Arab sign-language family",
                        "Japanese Sign Language family",
                        "family sign language",
                        "Sign Language in Örebro",
                        "manually coded language",
                        "diving sign language",
                        "Providencia–Cayman Sign Language family",
                        "Paraguay–Uruguay Sign Language family",
                        "Old Chiangmai–Bangkok Sign Language family",
                        "Danish Sign Language family"
                    ]
                }
            ],
            "standing": "Described in 113 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 49 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 sign language from another, and a sign language 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 sign language, 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 sign language, 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 sign language 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 sign language, 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 sign language, 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 sign language 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 sign language 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 sign language, 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 sign language, 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 sign language 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 sign language from the things most often confused with it.",
                                        "questions": [
                                            {
                                                "id": "distinguishing-features-q01",
                                                "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a sign language, 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 sign language, 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 sign language 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 sign language 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 sign language between them.",
                                        "questions": [
                                            {
                                                "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01",
                                                "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a sign language, 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 sign language, 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 sign language 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 sign language, how often and by whom.",
                                "findings": [
                                    {
                                        "id": "observation-record",
                                        "name": "Observation record",
                                        "description": "How an observation of a sign language 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 sign language, 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 sign language, 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 sign language 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 sign language 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 sign language contains and in what form it is held.",
                                        "questions": [
                                            {
                                                "id": "content-and-format-q01",
                                                "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a sign language, 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 sign language, 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 sign language 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 sign language and the period it survives.",
                                        "questions": [
                                            {
                                                "id": "access-rules-q01",
                                                "text": "What identifies and describes access to a sign language, 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 sign language, 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 sign language is known, and what must it refuse?",
                                                "kind": "action",
                                                "answer_data": [
                                                    "permitted actions",
                                                    "preconditions",
                                                    "refusals",
                                                    "escalation"
                                                ]
                                            }
                                        ]
                                    }
                                ]
                            }
                        ]
                    },
                    {
                        "id": "speakers-and-standing",
                        "name": "Speakers, communities and standing",
                        "description": "Who speaks sign language, how many, and what status it holds where they live.",
                        "rationale": "Speaker numbers move, and legal standing changes without the language changing. Both are claims with a date and a source, never properties.",
                        "layers": [
                            {
                                "id": "speaker-populations",
                                "name": "Speaker populations",
                                "description": "Counts by kind of speaker, each with the year and the method behind it.",
                                "findings": [
                                    {
                                        "id": "population-estimates",
                                        "name": "Population estimates and their basis",
                                        "description": "First-language and second-language counts, who produced them and how.",
                                        "questions": [
                                            {
                                                "id": "population-estimates-q01",
                                                "text": "How many first-language and second-language speakers of sign language are claimed, for which year, and by whom?",
                                                "kind": "measurement"
                                            },
                                            {
                                                "id": "population-estimates-q02",
                                                "text": "What method produced that estimate - census, survey, projection - and what does it systematically miss?",
                                                "kind": "provenance"
                                            }
                                        ]
                                    }
                                ]
                            },
                            {
                                "id": "official-standing",
                                "name": "Official standing and policy",
                                "description": "Where sign language is official, taught, or barred, and under which instrument.",
                                "findings": [
                                    {
                                        "id": "legal-status",
                                        "name": "Legal status by jurisdiction",
                                        "description": "The status held in each place, with the law or treaty that grants it.",
                                        "questions": [
                                            {
                                                "id": "legal-status-q01",
                                                "text": "In which jurisdictions does sign language hold official, regional or minority status, and under what instrument?",
                                                "kind": "definition"
                                            },
                                            {
                                                "id": "legal-status-q02",
                                                "text": "What follows practically from that status - schooling, courts, signage - and what does not?",
                                                "kind": "action"
                                            }
                                        ]
                                    }
                                ]
                            }
                        ]
                    },
                    {
                        "id": "varieties-and-writing",
                        "name": "Varieties, registers and writing",
                        "description": "The forms sign language takes, and the scripts and spellings used to write it.",
                        "rationale": "A language is not its script and a standard is not the whole language. A model that conflates them cannot say which variety a text is in.",
                        "layers": [
                            {
                                "id": "varieties-and-continuum",
                                "name": "Varieties and the continuum",
                                "description": "Dialects, standards and the cuts drawn through a continuum that has none of its own.",
                                "findings": [
                                    {
                                        "id": "variety-inventory",
                                        "name": "Varieties and who separated them",
                                        "description": "Named varieties, their relation to the standard, and the authority behind each split.",
                                        "questions": [
                                            {
                                                "id": "variety-inventory-q01",
                                                "text": "Which varieties of sign language are distinguished in practice, and who drew each boundary?",
                                                "kind": "boundary"
                                            },
                                            {
                                                "id": "variety-inventory-q02",
                                                "text": "Which neighbouring lect is treated as the same language by one authority and a different one by another?",
                                                "kind": "boundary"
                                            }
                                        ]
                                    }
                                ]
                            },
                            {
                                "id": "script-and-orthography",
                                "name": "Script and orthography",
                                "description": "Writing systems in use, competing spellings, and reform history.",
                                "findings": [
                                    {
                                        "id": "writing-systems",
                                        "name": "Writing systems and orthographies",
                                        "description": "Scripts sign language is written in and which spelling convention applies where.",
                                        "questions": [
                                            {
                                                "id": "writing-systems-q01",
                                                "text": "Which scripts and orthographies are in use for sign language, and where does each apply?",
                                                "kind": "definition"
                                            },
                                            {
                                                "id": "writing-systems-q02",
                                                "text": "What identifies the orthography of a given text, and what should an agent do when it cannot tell?",
                                                "kind": "action"
                                            }
                                        ]
                                    }
                                ]
                            }
                        ]
                    },
                    {
                        "id": "codes-and-alignment",
                        "name": "Codes and external alignment",
                        "description": "The identifiers that name sign language across systems.",
                        "rationale": "Language codes are how every other system will refer to this, and they disagree with each other in known ways.",
                        "layers": [
                            {
                                "id": "identifier-schemes",
                                "name": "Identifier schemes",
                                "description": "ISO 639 parts, Glottolog, and the granularity each assumes.",
                                "findings": [
                                    {
                                        "id": "codes-and-granularity",
                                        "name": "Codes and the granularity they encode",
                                        "description": "Which code refers to this language and which refers to a group containing it.",
                                        "questions": [
                                            {
                                                "id": "codes-and-granularity-q01",
                                                "text": "Which ISO 639-1, 639-2 and 639-3 codes apply to sign language, and do they refer to the same extent?",
                                                "kind": "definition"
                                            },
                                            {
                                                "id": "codes-and-granularity-q02",
                                                "text": "Where do the schemes disagree about whether this is one language or several?",
                                                "kind": "boundary"
                                            }
                                        ]
                                    }
                                ]
                            }
                        ]
                    },
                    {
                        "id": "provenance-and-evidence",
                        "name": "Provenance, evidence and time",
                        "description": "Where every claim about a sign language 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 sign language and how confident it is.",
                                        "questions": [
                                            {
                                                "id": "claim-provenance-q01",
                                                "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a sign language, 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 sign language, 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 sign language 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 sign language is retired without being erased.",
                                        "questions": [
                                            {
                                                "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01",
                                                "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a sign language, 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 sign language, 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 sign language is known, and what must it refuse?",
                                                "kind": "action",
                                                "answer_data": [
                                                    "permitted actions",
                                                    "preconditions",
                                                    "refusals",
                                                    "escalation"
                                                ]
                                            }
                                        ]
                                    }
                                ]
                            }
                        ]
                    }
                ]
            },
            "statistics": {
                "bundles": 7,
                "layers": 13,
                "findings": 15,
                "questions": 40
            }
        }
    }
}