{ "model": { "rank": 14689, "code": "thing-q34770", "model_id": "vr.tr.language", "name": "language", "purpose": "Let an agent explain what a language is and how languages are classified and counted, relay linguistic knowledge with attribution, distinguish languages from dialects and from formal languages, and route to entries for specific languages and families.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.MED", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q34770/", "tier": 2, "score": 35, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [], "aliasCount": 0, "merged": 0, "knownIn": 35, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.language-2", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q34770", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q34770", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T22:38:08Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 3, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q34770", "registryId": "vr.tr.language", "name": "language", "version": "0.2.0-wave.3", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.MED" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q34770/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.language", "name": "language", "purpose": "Let an agent explain what a language is and how languages are classified and counted, relay linguistic knowledge with attribution, distinguish languages from dialects and from formal languages, and route to entries for specific languages and families.", "definition": "A structured system of communication used by humans, consisting of sounds, signs or written symbols combined by grammar to convey meaning, acquired by children without explicit teaching, and existing in about 7000 living forms, each a language in the sense of a variety with its own speakers and identity; language is studied in linguistics, and the word also names the human capacity for language and, by extension, formal and programming languages.", "what_it_is_for": "Human communication and thought.", "affordances": [ "explain the concept and its features", "explain classification and counting of languages", "distinguish language from dialect and formal language", "route to specific languages" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Grammar and productivity", "Acquired naturally", "Spoken, signed and written modes", "Diversity and change" ], "appearance": "Not a visible object; heard as speech, seen as signing or writing.", "visual_identification": [ "Structured human communication system", "Spoken, signed or written", "Animal communication and programming languages are related but distinct" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "living languages", "typical_range": "about 7000", "unit": "count", "note": "estimates vary by criteria" }, { "quantity": "language families", "typical_range": "about 140", "unit": "count", "note": "plus isolates" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "spoken languages", "sign languages", "language families and isolates", "standard, minority and endangered languages", "pidgins, creoles and constructed languages", "language as a capacity, and formal languages as a related sense" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "languoid", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "is studied by", "target": "linguistics", "why": "the discipline" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "dialect", "why": "a variety within a language" }, { "relation": "is grouped into", "target": "language family", "why": "by descent" } ], "identifiers": [ { "scheme": "ISO 639", "value_or_pattern": "codes", "note": "language identifiers" }, { "scheme": "Glottolog", "value_or_pattern": "languoid codes", "note": "" } ], "standards_and_regulation": [ "ISO 639 language codes", "Language policies and official language laws", "UNESCO frameworks on endangered languages" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Treating the language-dialect distinction as purely linguistic", "Unsourced language counts", "Language endangerment and loss" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "concept", "name": "Concept", "description": "What language is.", "rationale": "Definition.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition and features.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is a language, and what features distinguish human language?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about a specific language, language in general or a formal language?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "dialect", "name": "Dialect", "description": "Language and dialect.", "findings": [ { "id": "dialect-finding", "name": "Dialect", "description": "Dialect.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are languages distinguished from dialects, and why is the distinction partly political, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation neutral?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "diversity", "name": "Diversity", "description": "Languages of the world.", "rationale": "Sources.", "layers": [ { "id": "count", "name": "Count", "description": "Counting and classifying.", "findings": [ { "id": "count-finding", "name": "Count", "description": "Count.", "questions": [ { "text": "How many languages exist, and how are they classified into families?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "text": "Which sources are cited?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "endangered", "name": "Endangered", "description": "Endangerment.", "findings": [ { "id": "endangered-finding", "name": "Endangered", "description": "Endangered.", "questions": [ { "text": "How many languages are endangered, and what is done to document and revitalise them?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits endangered language?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "structure", "name": "Structure", "description": "Structure and acquisition.", "rationale": "Linguistics.", "layers": [ { "id": "levels", "name": "Levels", "description": "Levels of structure.", "findings": [ { "id": "levels-finding", "name": "Levels", "description": "Levels.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific subfield?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "acquisition", "name": "Acquisition", "description": "Acquisition and evolution.", "findings": [ { "id": "acquisition-finding", "name": "Acquisition", "description": "Acquisition.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do children acquire language, and what do theories say about its evolution, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "society", "name": "Society", "description": "Language and society.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "policy", "name": "Policy", "description": "Policy and rights.", "findings": [ { "id": "policy-finding", "name": "Policy", "description": "Policy.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do states regulate languages, and what language rights exist?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits language policy?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "change", "name": "Change", "description": "Change and contact.", "findings": [ { "id": "change-finding", "name": "Change", "description": "Change.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do languages change and influence each other?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits historical linguistics?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should language as a capacity be a separate entry?", "How should ISO and Glottolog be linked?", "How should politically contested language identities be recorded?" ], "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 language, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain what a language is and how languages are classified and counted, relay linguistic knowledge with attribution, distinguish languages from dialects and from formal languages, and route to entries for specific languages and families.", "characteristics": { "substance": "information", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "read and interpreted", "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Described in 35 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 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": [], "standing": "Described in 35 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one language from another, and a 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 language from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a 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 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 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 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 language between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a 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 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 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 language, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a 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 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 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 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 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 language contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a 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 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 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 language and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 language is written in and which spelling convention applies where.", "questions": [ { "id": "writing-systems-q01", "text": "Which scripts and orthographies are in use for 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 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 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 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 language and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a 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 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 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 language is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a 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 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 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 } } } }