{ "model": { "rank": 476, "code": "thing-q7850", "model_id": "vr.tr.chinese", "name": "Chinese", "purpose": "Let an agent handle Chinese by variety, script, romanisation and usage, respecting the distinction between varieties and scripts.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.MED", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q7850/", "tier": 2, "score": 265, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "Chinese language in the United States", "Chinese language in Australia", "Lingling", "Dongping dialect", "Xiang Chinese", "Gan Chinese", "Wu Chinese", "Old Chinese", "Jin", "Min Chinese", "Huizhou Chinese", "Historical Chinese", "Shaozhou Tuhua", "Satinese", "Waxiang Chinese", "Ba-Shu Chinese", "Danzhou dialect", "Pinghua", "varieties of Chinese", "written Chinese language", "Hakka Chinese", "Old Gan", "Dong dialect", "Yeheni", "Chinese in Macau", "Mai dialect", "Standard Chinese", "Old Mandarin", "Yong-Quan Xiang", "Ji-Xu Xiang", "New Xiang", "Old Xiang", "Yueyang dialect", "Ji'an dialect", "Fuzhou dialect", "Yingtan Dialect", "Leping dialect", "Guichi Dialect", "Ying-Yi dialect", "Chang-Du dialect" ], "aliasCount": 108, "merged": 108, "knownIn": 265, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q7850", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7850", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T08:48:12Z", "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": 1, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q7850", "registryId": "vr.tr.chinese", "name": "Chinese", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.MED" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q7850/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.chinese", "name": "Chinese", "purpose": "Let an agent handle Chinese by variety, script, romanisation and usage, respecting the distinction between varieties and scripts.", "definition": "The Chinese languages, a branch of the Sino-Tibetan family comprising many varieties such as Mandarin, Cantonese (Yue), Wu, Min, Hakka, Xiang and Gan, written mainly with Chinese characters in simplified or traditional forms.", "what_it_is_for": "Communication for well over a billion people, and a major language of culture and scholarship.", "affordances": [ "identify the variety and script", "romanise with the right system", "learn Chinese", "translate carefully" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Group of varieties", "Shared logographic writing tradition", "Tonal", "Two main character standards" ], "appearance": "Chinese characters in simplified or traditional form; spoken varieties with tones.", "visual_identification": [ "Simplified versus traditional characters", "Romanisations such as Hanyu Pinyin or Jyutping", "Varieties may be mutually unintelligible in speech" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "speakers", "typical_range": "about 1.3-1.4 billion", "unit": "people", "note": "all varieties, estimates vary" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "Mandarin", "Yue (Cantonese)", "Wu (such as Shanghainese)", "Min (such as Hokkien)", "Hakka, Xiang and Gan" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "Sino-Tibetan language", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is written in", "target": "Chinese characters", "why": "script" }, { "relation": "is romanised by", "target": "Hanyu Pinyin and others", "why": "systems" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "Japanese and Korean", "why": "shared characters (not related languages)" } ], "identifiers": [ { "scheme": "ISO 639-1", "value_or_pattern": "zh", "note": "macrolanguage" }, { "scheme": "ISO 639-3", "value_or_pattern": "cmn, yue, wuu and others", "note": "varieties" } ], "standards_and_regulation": [ "National language standards (Putonghua)", "Unicode CJK standards", "ISO 7098 romanisation" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Treating all varieties as one spoken language", "Mixing simplified and traditional scripts", "Wrong romanisation for names" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "variety", "name": "Variety", "description": "Which Chinese.", "rationale": "Varieties differ.", "layers": [ { "id": "spoken", "name": "Spoken", "description": "Variety.", "findings": [ { "id": "spoken-finding", "name": "Spoken", "description": "Variety.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which spoken variety is meant?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Where is it spoken?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "script", "name": "Script", "description": "Simplified or traditional.", "findings": [ { "id": "script-finding", "name": "Script", "description": "Script.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which character standard is expected?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "For which region?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "romanisation", "name": "Romanisation", "description": "Latin script.", "rationale": "Systems differ.", "layers": [ { "id": "system", "name": "System", "description": "Pinyin, Jyutping.", "findings": [ { "id": "system-finding", "name": "System", "description": "Romanisation system.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which romanisation system applies?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Are tone marks needed?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "names", "name": "Names", "description": "Personal and place names.", "findings": [ { "id": "names-finding", "name": "Names", "description": "Names.", "questions": [ { "text": "How does the person or place prefer to be romanised?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is a historical form used?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "learning", "name": "Learning", "description": "Learners.", "rationale": "Chinese is widely learned.", "layers": [ { "id": "levels", "name": "Levels", "description": "HSK and others.", "findings": [ { "id": "levels-finding", "name": "Levels", "description": "Proficiency.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which proficiency tests exist?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "What level is needed?", "kind": "measurement" } ] } ] }, { "id": "resources", "name": "Resources", "description": "Study.", "findings": [ { "id": "resources-finding", "name": "Resources", "description": "Resources.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which learning resources suit the learner?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which variety do they teach?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "translation", "name": "Translation", "description": "Care.", "rationale": "Translation needs care.", "layers": [ { "id": "accuracy", "name": "Accuracy", "description": "Meaning.", "findings": [ { "id": "accuracy-finding", "name": "Accuracy", "description": "Translation.", "questions": [ { "text": "Does the translation keep meaning and register?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Are idioms handled?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "neutrality", "name": "Neutrality", "description": "Naming.", "findings": [ { "id": "neutrality-finding", "name": "Neutrality", "description": "Neutral naming.", "questions": [ { "text": "Are politically sensitive names handled neutrally?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Are alternatives noted?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should varieties be separate entries?", "How should scripts be linked?", "How should politically sensitive naming be handled?" ], "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 Chinese, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent handle Chinese by variety, script, romanisation and usage, respecting the distinction between varieties and scripts.", "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: Chinese language in the United States, Chinese language in Australia, Lingling, Dongping dialect, Xiang Chinese, Gan Chinese, Wu Chinese, Old Chinese, Jin, Min Chinese, Huizhou Chinese, Historical Chinese.", "108 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 265 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 Chinese, 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": [ "Chinese language in the United States", "Chinese language in Australia", "Lingling", "Dongping dialect", "Xiang Chinese", "Gan Chinese", "Wu Chinese", "Old Chinese", "Jin", "Min Chinese", "Huizhou Chinese", "Historical Chinese" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 265 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 108 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 Chinese from another, and a Chinese 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 Chinese, 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 Chinese, 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 Chinese 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 Chinese, 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 Chinese, 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 Chinese 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 Chinese 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 Chinese, 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 Chinese, 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 Chinese 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 Chinese from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a Chinese, 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 Chinese, 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 Chinese 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 Chinese 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 Chinese between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a Chinese, 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 Chinese, 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 Chinese 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 Chinese, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a Chinese 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 Chinese, 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 Chinese, 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 Chinese 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 Chinese 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 Chinese contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a Chinese, 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 Chinese, 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 Chinese 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 Chinese and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a Chinese, 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 Chinese, 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 Chinese 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 Chinese 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 Chinese, 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 Chinese 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 Chinese 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 Chinese, 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 Chinese, 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 Chinese 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 Chinese and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a Chinese, 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 Chinese, 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 Chinese 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 Chinese is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a Chinese, 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 Chinese, 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 Chinese 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 } } } }