working language
Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a working language, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.
Generated draft, first pass
This model was drafted by rule from what the registry knows about the thing. It proposes which bundles a real model will need and which questions research must answer. It is not researched and no sentence in it is sourced.
Generator: vr.draft.v3
Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Derived, awaiting review
7 bundles · 13 layers · 15 findings · 40 questions
Identity, naming and classification How an agent tells one working language from another, and a working language from things that resemble it.
Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.
Names and identifiers
The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.
Preferred name, aliases and local names
Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.
- What identifies and describes the name of a working language, and in what units or vocabulary? definition
- Who or what asserted this about the name of a working language, by which method, and when was it true? provenance
- What may an agent decide or do once the name of a working language is known, and what must it refuse? action
Stable identifiers and external keys
Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.
- What identifies and describes an identifier for a working language, and in what units or vocabulary? definition
- Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a working language, by which method, and when was it true? provenance
- What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a working language is known, and what must it refuse? action
Classification and granularity
Where a working language sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.
Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds
The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.
- What identifies and describes the kind of a working language, and in what units or vocabulary? definition
- Who or what asserted this about the kind of a working language, by which method, and when was it true? provenance
- What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a working language is known, and what must it refuse? action
Distinguishing features
What separates a working language from the things most often confused with it.
- What identifies and describes what distinguishes a working language, and in what units or vocabulary? definition
- Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a working language, by which method, and when was it true? provenance
- What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a working language is known, and what must it refuse? action
State and lifecycle The states a working language passes through and the events that move it between them.
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.
Lifecycle stages
From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.
Stages and transitions
The stages worth naming and what moves a working language between them.
- What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a working language, and in what units or vocabulary? definition
- Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a working language, by which method, and when was it true? provenance
- What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a working language is known, and what must it refuse? action
Observations and current status
What is observed about a working language, how often and by whom.
Observation record
How an observation of a working language is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.
- What identifies and describes an observation of a working language, and in what units or vocabulary? definition
- Who or what asserted this about an observation of a working language, by which method, and when was it true? provenance
- What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a working language is known, and what must it refuse? action
Content, encoding and access What a working language says, how it is encoded and who may read it.
An informational thing carries content that can be copied, versioned and withheld, none of which its physical carrier explains.
Content and encoding
The content itself, its format and its language.
Content, format and language
What a working language contains and in what form it is held.
- What identifies and describes the content of a working language, and in what units or vocabulary? definition
- Who or what asserted this about the content of a working language, by which method, and when was it true? provenance
- What may an agent decide or do once the content of a working language is known, and what must it refuse? action
Access, rights and retention
Who may read, copy or change it, and for how long it is kept.
Access rules and retention
The permissions attached to a working language and the period it survives.
- What identifies and describes access to a working language, and in what units or vocabulary? definition
- Who or what asserted this about access to a working language, by which method, and when was it true? provenance
- What may an agent decide or do once access to a working language is known, and what must it refuse? action
Speakers, communities and standing Who speaks working language, how many, and what status it holds where they live.
Speaker numbers move, and legal standing changes without the language changing. Both are claims with a date and a source, never properties.
Speaker populations
Counts by kind of speaker, each with the year and the method behind it.
Population estimates and their basis
First-language and second-language counts, who produced them and how.
- How many first-language and second-language speakers of working language are claimed, for which year, and by whom? measurement
- What method produced that estimate - census, survey, projection - and what does it systematically miss? provenance
Official standing and policy
Where working language is official, taught, or barred, and under which instrument.
Legal status by jurisdiction
The status held in each place, with the law or treaty that grants it.
- In which jurisdictions does working language hold official, regional or minority status, and under what instrument? definition
- What follows practically from that status - schooling, courts, signage - and what does not? action
Varieties, registers and writing The forms working language takes, and the scripts and spellings used to write it.
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.
Varieties and the continuum
Dialects, standards and the cuts drawn through a continuum that has none of its own.
Varieties and who separated them
Named varieties, their relation to the standard, and the authority behind each split.
- Which varieties of working language are distinguished in practice, and who drew each boundary? boundary
- Which neighbouring lect is treated as the same language by one authority and a different one by another? boundary
Script and orthography
Writing systems in use, competing spellings, and reform history.
Writing systems and orthographies
Scripts working language is written in and which spelling convention applies where.
- Which scripts and orthographies are in use for working language, and where does each apply? definition
- What identifies the orthography of a given text, and what should an agent do when it cannot tell? action
Codes and external alignment The identifiers that name working language across systems.
Language codes are how every other system will refer to this, and they disagree with each other in known ways.
Identifier schemes
ISO 639 parts, Glottolog, and the granularity each assumes.
Codes and the granularity they encode
Which code refers to this language and which refers to a group containing it.
- Which ISO 639-1, 639-2 and 639-3 codes apply to working language, and do they refer to the same extent? definition
- Where do the schemes disagree about whether this is one language or several? boundary
Provenance, evidence and time Where every claim about a working language came from and when it held.
A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.
Source and authority
Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.
Claim provenance and confidence
The authority behind each claim about a working language and how confident it is.
- What identifies and describes a claim about a working language, and in what units or vocabulary? definition
- Who or what asserted this about a claim about a working language, by which method, and when was it true? provenance
- What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a working language is known, and what must it refuse? action
Time, versions and supersession
When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.
Validity period and supersession
How an old claim about a working language is retired without being erased.
- What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a working language, and in what units or vocabulary? definition
- Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a working language, by which method, and when was it true? provenance
- What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a working language is known, and what must it refuse? action
Classifiers Filled
- Family
- Thing Registry
- Category
- Information and virtual systems
- Entry kind
- language
- Plane
- INF
- Domain
- INF.MED
What it is Derived, awaiting review
An informational thing registered under INF.MED. The registry names it; this draft has not been given a definition yet.
Why it exists Derived, awaiting review
Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a working language, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.
Distinguishing features Derived, awaiting review
- Described in 28 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is.
What robots and AI may and may not do Derived, awaiting review
May
- read it and act on what it says
- observe it, measure it, record its state
Moral aspects Missing, in the backlog
Not described yet. This gap is in the card backlog.
Owners Missing, in the backlog
Not described yet. This gap is in the card backlog.
Links to other meta-models Missing, in the backlog
Not described yet. This gap is in the card backlog.
What else AI and robots need to interact with it Incomplete
Identity and identifiers required Missing, in the backlog
Not described yet. This gap is in the card backlog.
Direct properties not applicable Not applicable
- Made of: content that has to be carried by something else
- 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.
Recognition optional Derived, awaiting review
- Recognised from text or speech by script, vocabulary and grammar - and script is the weakest of the three, since several languages share one.
Capabilities and actions required Derived, awaiting review
- read and interpreted
- observed and measured
Hazards and failure modes required Missing, in the backlog
Not described yet. This gap is in the card backlog.
Standards and interfaces required Missing, in the backlog
Not described yet. This gap is in the card backlog.
Context of use required Derived, awaiting review
- Described in 28 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is.
Sources Missing, in the backlog
Not described yet. This gap is in the card backlog.
Open questions
- 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 working language, and on what evidence are they told apart?
- What may an agent decide or do once the name of a working language is known, and what must it refuse?
- What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a working language is known, and what must it refuse?
- What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a working language is known, and what must it refuse?
Machine files
Provenance
thing registry, generated draft (pass 1) · not researched
Built from: models/draft_model.php, wikidata
Generated by rule from registry facets. No source was read; every derived section awaits the research pass.