{ "model": { "rank": 2030, "code": "thing-q47054", "model_id": "vr.tr.riddle", "name": "riddle", "purpose": "Let an agent explain riddles and their kinds, relay traditions, structure and study from folklore and literary sources, describe games and uses, and distinguish riddles from puzzles, jokes, proverbs and mysteries.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.MED", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q47054/", "tier": 2, "score": 118, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "Hebrew riddle", "Petorke", "Malay riddle", "charade", "situation puzzle", "riddle joke", "Arabic riddle", "Finnic riddles", "Greek riddles", "Persian riddles", "lantern riddle", "Anglo-Saxon riddles", "writing-riddle", "rebus", "South Asian riddles", "Telephone Puzzle" ], "aliasCount": 16, "merged": 17, "knownIn": 118, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q47054", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q47054", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-13T07:14:03Z", "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-Q47054", "registryId": "vr.tr.riddle", "name": "riddle", "version": "0.2.0-wave.3", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.MED" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q47054/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.riddle", "name": "riddle", "purpose": "Let an agent explain riddles and their kinds, relay traditions, structure and study from folklore and literary sources, describe games and uses, and distinguish riddles from puzzles, jokes, proverbs and mysteries.", "definition": "A statement, question or phrase with a hidden meaning to be guessed, one of the oldest verbal art forms found in nearly every culture, from enigmas and conundrums in Hebrew and Malay traditions and the Petorke of Ukrainian folk tradition to charades acted out, situation puzzles solved by yes-or-no questions and riddle jokes with punning answers; riddles appear in folklore, scripture, literature and games and are studied by folklorists and linguists.", "what_it_is_for": "Entertainment, teaching and verbal play.", "affordances": [ "explain kinds and structure", "relay traditions and study", "describe games and uses", "distinguish related forms" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Hidden answer", "Metaphor and ambiguity", "Universal form", "Oral and literary" ], "appearance": "Not a visible object; a verbal puzzle.", "visual_identification": [ "Verbal puzzle with a hidden answer", "Enigmas, conundrums, Hebrew riddles, Malay riddles, Petorke, charades, situation puzzles, riddle jokes", "A puzzle may be non-verbal; a joke need not be guessed; a proverb states wisdom" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "oldest recorded", "typical_range": "Sumerian", "unit": "note", "note": "about 4000 years ago" }, { "quantity": "Aarne-Thompson", "typical_range": "riddle tales type 851", "unit": "note", "note": "" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "true riddles or enigmas describing an object metaphorically", "conundrums and riddle jokes based on puns", "charades and acted riddles", "situation puzzles", "riddles in Hebrew, Malay, Ukrainian and other traditions such as Petorke", "riddles in literature and scripture" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "puzzle", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "word game", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "is studied in", "target": "folklore studies", "why": "as verbal art" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "joke", "why": "which need not be solved" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "No regulation" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Confusing riddles with puzzles or jokes", "Loss of context in translation", "Registry aliases naming national traditions and subtypes" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What a riddle is.", "rationale": "Definition.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is a riddle, and how does it differ from puzzles, jokes and proverbs?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about riddles in general, a kind, a tradition or a specific riddle?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "kinds", "name": "Kinds", "description": "Kinds.", "findings": [ { "id": "kinds-finding", "name": "Kinds", "description": "Kinds.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are enigmas, conundrums, charades, situation puzzles and riddle jokes?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific kind?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "traditions", "name": "Traditions", "description": "Traditions.", "rationale": "Sources.", "layers": [ { "id": "cultures", "name": "Cultures", "description": "Cultural traditions.", "findings": [ { "id": "cultures-finding", "name": "Cultures", "description": "Cultures.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do Hebrew, Malay, Ukrainian and other traditions such as Petorke use riddles?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "literature", "name": "Literature", "description": "Literature and scripture.", "findings": [ { "id": "literature-finding", "name": "Literature", "description": "Literature.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do riddles appear in scripture, epic, Anglo-Saxon poetry and modern fiction?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which sources are cited?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "play", "name": "Play", "description": "Playing and using.", "rationale": "Practice.", "layers": [ { "id": "games", "name": "Games", "description": "Games.", "findings": [ { "id": "games-finding", "name": "Games", "description": "Games.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are riddle games and situation puzzles played?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which entry fits parlour game?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "education", "name": "Education", "description": "Education.", "findings": [ { "id": "education-finding", "name": "Education", "description": "Education.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are riddles used in teaching language and thinking?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits language teaching?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "Study and history.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "study", "name": "Study", "description": "Scholarship.", "findings": [ { "id": "study-finding", "name": "Study", "description": "Study.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do folklorists and linguists analyse riddle structure and function, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits folkloristics?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How have riddles been recorded from Sumer to riddle collections and the internet?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the history of riddles?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should charade and situation puzzle be separate entries?", "How should folklore sources be linked?", "The registry entry has merged aliases naming traditions and subtypes; should they be split off?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "work, medium or creative form", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a riddle, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain riddles and their kinds, relay traditions, structure and study from folklore and literary sources, describe games and uses, and distinguish riddles from puzzles, jokes, proverbs and mysteries.", "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: Hebrew riddle, Petorke, Malay riddle, charade, situation puzzle, riddle joke, Arabic riddle, Finnic riddles, Greek riddles, Persian riddles, lantern riddle, Anglo-Saxon riddles.", "17 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 118 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 riddle, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "content that has to be carried by something else", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "read it and act on what it says", "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "What is seen is a copy or a performance, not the work. Recognising the work means recognising the content through whatever is carrying it." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "Hebrew riddle", "Petorke", "Malay riddle", "charade", "situation puzzle", "riddle joke", "Arabic riddle", "Finnic riddles", "Greek riddles", "Persian riddles", "lantern riddle", "Anglo-Saxon riddles" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 118 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 17 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 riddle from another, and a riddle 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 riddle, 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 riddle, 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 riddle 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 riddle, 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 riddle, 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 riddle 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 riddle 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 riddle, 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 riddle, 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 riddle 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 riddle from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a riddle, 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 riddle, 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 riddle 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 riddle 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 riddle between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a riddle, 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 riddle, 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 riddle 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 riddle, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a riddle 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 riddle, 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 riddle, 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 riddle 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 riddle 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 riddle contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a riddle, 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 riddle, 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 riddle 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 riddle and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a riddle, 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 riddle, 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 riddle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "work-and-manifestation", "name": "Work, version and copy", "description": "Which level of riddle a statement is about.", "rationale": "The work, the edition, the file and the copy in hand are four things; rights and content attach to different ones.", "layers": [ { "id": "levels", "name": "Levels of the thing", "description": "Work, expression, manifestation and item, in plain terms.", "findings": [ { "id": "level-rules", "name": "What belongs at each level", "description": "Which facts hold for the work and which only for one copy.", "questions": [ { "id": "level-rules-q01", "text": "For riddle, which facts belong to the work itself, which to a version, and which to a single copy?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "level-rules-q02", "text": "What identifier exists at each level, and which one is being cited?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "versions", "name": "Versions, editions and variants", "description": "How versions differ and which is canonical to whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "version-record", "name": "Versions and canonicity", "description": "Differences that matter and who calls one authoritative.", "questions": [ { "id": "version-record-q01", "text": "Which versions or editions of riddle exist, and how do they differ substantively?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "version-record-q02", "text": "Who treats which version as authoritative, and for what purpose?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "authorship-and-rights", "name": "Authorship, rights and permitted use", "description": "Who made riddle and what may be done with it.", "rationale": "Rights are jurisdictional, time-limited and attached to a level, and an agent that ignores that will copy what it may not.", "layers": [ { "id": "authorship", "name": "Authorship and contribution", "description": "Who contributed what, and in what capacity.", "findings": [ { "id": "contribution-record", "name": "Contributors and roles", "description": "The people and bodies behind it, with their roles.", "questions": [ { "id": "contribution-record-q01", "text": "Who authored or contributed to riddle, in what roles, and how is that attested?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "contribution-record-q02", "text": "Where authorship is disputed or anonymous, what is recorded instead?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "rights", "name": "Rights and permissions", "description": "Which rights subsist, where, until when, and what they permit.", "findings": [ { "id": "rights-record", "name": "Rights, term and permitted acts", "description": "The regime in force and what it allows.", "questions": [ { "id": "rights-record-q01", "text": "What rights subsist in riddle, in which jurisdictions, and until when?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "rights-record-q02", "text": "Which acts are permitted without further permission, and which must an agent refuse?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a riddle 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 riddle and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a riddle, 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 riddle, 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 riddle 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 riddle is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a riddle, 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 riddle, 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 riddle is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }