{ "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T11:32:27Z", "providers": [ "Codex" ], "breadth": "recalled by Codex without web access - no source was read", "missingProviders": [], "pass": 2, "cost": { "grok": { "seconds": 18.0, "error": "Reading additional input from stdin...\nOpenAI Codex v0.153.4\n--------\nworkdir: R:\\02_PROJECTS\\02_Meta_Models_Platforms\\Ver.cy\\current\\thing-registry-backlog\nmodel: gpt-6-astra\nprovider: openai\napproval: never\nsandbox: read-only\nreasoning effort: none\nreasoning summaries: none\nsession id: 01a09562-f3e6-7e30-8d93-0843b2ad98f5\n--------\nuser\nDescribe what is already known about one registered thing. Answer as JSON only, no prose around it.\n\nThing: native speaker\nSense to describe: (none recorded)\nDomain code: SOC.PER\nAlso known as: (none)\n\n\nContext for this batch of 1001 things:\n# Batch 044: 1001 ", "usd": 0.0, "recall": true }, "codex": { "seconds": 62.2, "error": "Reading additional input from stdin...\nOpenAI Codex v0.153.4\n--------\nworkdir: R:\\02_PROJECTS\\02_Meta_Models_Platforms\\Ver.cy\\current\\thing-registry-backlog\nmodel: gpt-6-astra\nprovider: openai\napproval: never\nsandbox: read-only\nreasoning effort: none\nreasoning summaries: none\nsession id: 01a09562-f3f2-7f50-a8e9-42b2aa76e9cf\n--------\nuser\nYou are drafting a Vercy meta-model for one registered thing. Answer as JSON only, no prose around it.\n\nThing: native speaker\nRegistry id: vr.tr.native-speaker\nPlane / domain: SOC / SOC.PER\nRegistry definition: (none recorded)\nNames folded into this entry: (no" } }, "enrichment": { "pass": 3, "engine": "claude", "producedAt": "2026-10-06T12:00:00Z", "ingestedAt": "2026-10-06T08:41:31+00:00", "fields": [ "agent_conduct", "ethics", "failure_modes_and_hazards", "owners" ] }, "gate": { "passed": true, "version": "1.0", "at": "2026-10-07T10:10:33+00:00", "evidence": [ "completeness 1.00", "sense: Wikidata description", "2 live sources", "review by codex: pass" ] } }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q924130", "registryId": "vr.tr.native-speaker", "name": "native speaker", "version": "0.1.0-research.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "SOC.PER" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q924130/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.native-speaker", "name": "native speaker", "purpose": "Enable an agent to describe and assess a person's native-speaker relationship to a particular language or variety without confusing acquisition history, current proficiency, identity or institutional eligibility.", "definition": "A native speaker of a language is a person who acquired it through ordinary social interaction in early childhood, although the category's boundaries and its relationship to proficiency and identity are contested.", "scope_statement": "This model owns the contextual relationship between a person and a spoken or signed language described as native, including acquisition history, present language use, attribution of that status and limits on decisions made from it.", "in_scope": [ "The person-language or person-variety relationship to which native-speaker status refers", "Early acquisition environments, timing and continuity of exposure", "Multiple native languages and changes in language dominance", "Current abilities and use, recorded separately from acquisition status", "Self-identification, external attribution and context-specific definitions", "Evidence and decision limits when native-speaker status is used" ], "out_of_scope": [ "The person's complete biography, nationality, ethnicity or citizenship", "The grammar, history and classification of the language itself", "Complete proficiency assessment instruments and scoring systems", "Teaching, translation or interpreting occupations and their qualifications", "Employment policies, legal eligibility rules and discrimination adjudication", "Clinical diagnosis of language, speech or hearing conditions" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "The designation concerns a person in relation to a specified language or variety; it is not a freestanding property that applies equally to all languages the person uses.", "Early acquisition history is relevant to the designation; a high proficiency score alone does not establish that history.", "Nationality, ancestry, residence and accent alone do not establish native-speaker status.", "A person may have more than one native language, and the strongest current language need not be the earliest acquired.", "Native-speaker status does not by itself establish literacy, specialist vocabulary, teaching competence or translation qualifications." ], "characteristics": [ { "name": "Target language or variety", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Reference to a named spoken or signed language or variety; unresolved boundaries recorded explicitly", "why_it_matters": "Identifies the language relationship being described and prevents unsupported extension to related varieties." }, { "name": "Acquisition onset", "kind": "measurement", "unit_or_values": "Age or age interval in years or months, with uncertainty; unknown permitted", "why_it_matters": "Makes early acquisition assessable without imposing an unsupported universal age threshold." }, { "name": "Early acquisition environment", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Household interaction, community interaction, early education, other, mixed or unknown", "why_it_matters": "Distinguishes meaningful language interaction from assumptions based on birthplace or family identity." }, { "name": "Acquisition trajectory", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Single-language early acquisition, simultaneous multilingual acquisition, sequential acquisition, unresolved", "why_it_matters": "Allows multilingual histories without forcing one exclusive mother tongue." }, { "name": "Exposure continuity", "kind": "state", "unit_or_values": "Continuous, intermittent, substantially interrupted, resumed or unknown, with relevant periods", "why_it_matters": "Helps explain differences between early acquisition and present access to the language." }, { "name": "Current ability profile", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Dated observations or assessments by comprehension, production, interaction and literacy where applicable", "why_it_matters": "Supports task decisions using observed abilities rather than the native-speaker label." }, { "name": "Current language dominance", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Relative strength or use among the person's languages, qualified by domain and date; unknown permitted", "why_it_matters": "Separates current dominance from acquisition order." }, { "name": "Status attribution", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Person or institution asserting the designation, their definition, context and date", "why_it_matters": "Makes disagreements and institution-specific classifications interpretable." }, { "name": "Status resolution", "kind": "state", "unit_or_values": "Supported under a stated definition, self-reported only, disputed, unresolved or not applicable under that definition", "why_it_matters": "Preserves uncertainty instead of treating an unqualified label as settled evidence." } ], "affordances": [ "Record a qualified native-speaker designation for a specified language or variety.", "Compare an acquisition history with an explicitly stated definition and identify missing evidence.", "Represent multiple native languages and changes in dominance without overwriting earlier history.", "Identify which current abilities require direct assessment for a proposed task.", "Flag unsupported inferences from accent, nationality, ancestry or native-speaker status.", "Preserve conflicting self-descriptions and institutional classifications with their provenance." ], "agent_conduct": { "may": [ "Describe the concept of native speaker and debates about it from linguistic sources.", "Record a user's own statement of their first languages when they choose to share it." ], "must_not": [ "Label a person a native or non-native speaker from their accent or name.", "Use native-speaker status to screen people out of jobs or housing.", "Treat a native speaker as an authority on every question about their language.", "Mock accents or ways of speaking." ], "requires_human": [ "Using language background in any decision about a person." ] }, "ethics": { "considerations": [ "Job adverts demanding native speakers can exclude qualified people and hide discrimination by origin.", "Language is tied to identity; labels can erase multilingual people." ], "affected_parties": [ "Language learners", "Migrants and multilingual people", "Language teachers" ] }, "owners": { "steward": "Nobody: it is a description of people, not an owned thing.", "master_systems": [] }, "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "The label can be used as a proxy for discrimination by nationality or ethnicity.", "Assuming native intuition is always correct can mislead research." ], "what_it_is_for": [ "The term native speaker is used in linguistics, language education and descriptions of personal language history.", "It can describe early language acquisition, but does not by itself establish current proficiency, literacy or teaching ability.", "Careful use distinguishes acquisition history from identity and any separately defined institutional eligibility criteria." ], "facets_not_applicable": { "interfaces": "No universal official classification or standard establishes native-speaker status across languages and institutions.", "recognition": "Native-speaker status concerns language acquisition history and cannot be established from visual appearance." } }, "sources": [ { "id": "wikidata", "title": "Wikidata item Q924130: native speaker", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q924130", "url_status": "live", "what_it_supports": "identity and sense of the item", "checked_by": "wikidata-api" }, { "id": "wikipedia-en", "title": "Wikipedia: Native speaker", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_speaker", "url_status": "live", "what_it_supports": "general description of the item", "checked_by": "wikidata-api sitelink" } ], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "language-relationship", "name": "Language relationship", "description": "Identifies whose relationship to which language is being described and what native means in context.", "rationale": "Native-speaker status cannot be interpreted reliably without both a target language and an explicit classification basis.", "layers": [ { "id": "language-and-variety", "name": "Language and variety", "description": "Locates the designation at the appropriate language or variety boundary.", "findings": [ { "id": "target-of-designation", "name": "Target of designation", "description": "Record the language or variety named in the designation, including signed languages and unresolved naming boundaries.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which spoken or signed language, and which variety if relevant, does the native-speaker designation concern?", "kind": "definition", "id": "target-of-designation-q01" }, { "text": "Does the evidence concern this variety specifically, or only a broader language label?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "target-of-designation-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operative-definition", "name": "Operative definition", "description": "Makes the meaning of native-speaker status explicit for the setting.", "findings": [ { "id": "classification-criteria", "name": "Classification criteria", "description": "Record whether the designation rests on early acquisition, identity, community recognition or an institution's stated criteria.", "questions": [ { "text": "What definition of native speaker is being applied in this setting?", "kind": "definition", "id": "classification-criteria-q01" }, { "text": "Who supplied that definition, and where is it documented?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "classification-criteria-q02" }, { "text": "Would another relevant definition classify the same history differently?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "classification-criteria-q03" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "early-language-acquisition", "name": "Early language acquisition", "description": "Captures the timing and interactional settings through which the language entered the person's life.", "rationale": "An acquisition-based designation needs an actual language history rather than proxies such as birthplace or ancestry.", "layers": [ { "id": "onset-and-interaction", "name": "Onset and interaction", "description": "Records when sustained exposure began and what participation it involved.", "findings": [ { "id": "early-acquisition-history", "name": "Early acquisition history", "description": "Record approximate onset, interlocutors and opportunities for understanding and producing the language, allowing incomplete recall.", "questions": [ { "text": "At what age or during which developmental period did sustained interaction in this language begin?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "early-acquisition-history-q01" }, { "text": "With whom and in which settings did the person understand, speak or sign the language?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "early-acquisition-history-q02" }, { "text": "Was exposure interactive, primarily receptive or too poorly documented to distinguish?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "early-acquisition-history-q03" } ] } ] }, { "id": "multilingual-development", "name": "Multilingual development", "description": "Represents overlapping acquisition histories and interruptions.", "findings": [ { "id": "acquisition-sequence-and-continuity", "name": "Acquisition sequence and continuity", "description": "Record other languages acquired during childhood and periods that substantially changed access or use.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which languages were acquired concurrently or sequentially during childhood?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "acquisition-sequence-and-continuity-q01" }, { "text": "When did household, schooling or community changes interrupt or expand use of this language?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "acquisition-sequence-and-continuity-q02" }, { "text": "Does the stated definition allow more than one native language for this history?", "kind": "definition", "id": "acquisition-sequence-and-continuity-q03" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "present-language-repertoire", "name": "Present language repertoire", "description": "Separates current abilities and patterns of use from early acquisition.", "rationale": "An agent needs task-relevant evidence because an acquisition label does not specify present competence across activities.", "layers": [ { "id": "abilities-by-activity", "name": "Abilities by activity", "description": "Describes what the person can currently do in the target language.", "findings": [ { "id": "uneven-ability-profile", "name": "Uneven ability profile", "description": "Record comprehension, production, interaction and applicable literacy separately, with register and assessment context.", "questions": [ { "text": "What current evidence describes comprehension, production and interaction in the target language?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "uneven-ability-profile-q01" }, { "text": "Which literacy, formal-register or specialist abilities have been assessed separately?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "uneven-ability-profile-q02" }, { "text": "Which abilities remain unknown despite the native-speaker designation?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "uneven-ability-profile-q03" } ] } ] }, { "id": "use-and-dominance", "name": "Use and dominance", "description": "Tracks present language use and changes relative to other languages.", "findings": [ { "id": "current-language-position", "name": "Current language position", "description": "Record where the language is used now and whether its accessibility or relative dominance has changed.", "questions": [ { "text": "In which household, social, educational or work settings is the language currently used?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "current-language-position-q01" }, { "text": "Has another language become more frequently used or more accessible, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "current-language-position-q02" }, { "text": "What reassessment is needed before relying on older ability evidence?", "kind": "action", "id": "current-language-position-q03" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "identity-and-attribution", "name": "Identity and attribution", "description": "Distinguishes a person's own language identification from labels assigned by others.", "rationale": "A single status field would hide disagreements and conflate belonging with acquisition evidence.", "layers": [ { "id": "self-description", "name": "Self-description", "description": "Preserves the person's own terminology and its intended meaning.", "findings": [ { "id": "language-self-identification", "name": "Language self-identification", "description": "Record whether and how the person uses native language, first language, mother tongue or another term without automatically equating them.", "questions": [ { "text": "How does the person describe their relationship to this language?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "language-self-identification-q01" }, { "text": "Does their chosen term refer to acquisition, family affiliation, belonging, strongest language or a combination?", "kind": "definition", "id": "language-self-identification-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "external-designation", "name": "External designation", "description": "Records classifications made by communities, researchers or institutions.", "findings": [ { "id": "attribution-and-disagreement", "name": "Attribution and disagreement", "description": "Attach each external designation to its author, criteria and context, retaining conflicts with self-description.", "questions": [ { "text": "Who assigns or disputes native-speaker status, and what evidence or criteria do they cite?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "attribution-and-disagreement-q01" }, { "text": "Is the attribution based on language history or on proxies such as accent, nationality or ancestry?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "attribution-and-disagreement-q02" }, { "text": "How should conflicting designations remain visible without silently selecting one as definitive?", "kind": "action", "id": "attribution-and-disagreement-q03" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "evidence-and-permitted-inference", "name": "Evidence and permitted inference", "description": "Connects documented language history to defensible assessments and task decisions.", "rationale": "The model must explain what the designation supports and where additional evidence is necessary.", "layers": [ { "id": "history-evidence", "name": "History evidence", "description": "Qualifies the evidence supporting acquisition and status claims.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-support-and-gaps", "name": "Claim support and gaps", "description": "Distinguish self-report, family recollection, records and assessment results according to the particular claims they can support.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which source supports each claim about acquisition timing, exposure and continuity?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "claim-support-and-gaps-q01" }, { "text": "Which details are approximate, contradictory or unavailable?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "claim-support-and-gaps-q02" }, { "text": "Does an assessment demonstrate present ability while leaving acquisition history unresolved?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "claim-support-and-gaps-q03" } ] } ] }, { "id": "task-specific-use", "name": "Task-specific use", "description": "Limits operational conclusions to evidence relevant to the proposed activity.", "findings": [ { "id": "decision-relevance", "name": "Decision relevance", "description": "Determine whether a task requires early acquisition history, present language ability, community knowledge or a separate professional qualification.", "questions": [ { "text": "What property does the proposed task actually require, and why is native-speaker status relevant to it?", "kind": "action", "id": "decision-relevance-q01" }, { "text": "What direct ability evidence or professional qualification is needed before assigning the task?", "kind": "action", "id": "decision-relevance-q02" }, { "text": "Would using this designation incorrectly imply expertise across varieties, registers or all members of a language community?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "decision-relevance-q03" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "evidence-and-external-alignment", "name": "Evidence and external alignment", "description": "What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.", "rationale": "A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.", "layers": [ { "id": "reported-evidence", "name": "Reported evidence", "description": "Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.", "findings": [ { "id": "evidence-confidence-notes", "name": "Check these first", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "This is a person category relative to a particular language, not an occupation, qualification or universal proficiency level.", "Research should specify how early acquisition, sustained use, self-identification and community recognition are operationalized.", "No single age threshold or proficiency score universally establishes native-speaker status." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-confidence-notes-q01", "text": "Which of these check these first hold for the sense of native speaker this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-kinds", "name": "Kinds and varieties", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "Monolingual native speaker", "Simultaneous bilingual native speaker", "Native speaker of a signed language" ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-kinds-q01", "text": "Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of native speaker this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-real-world-use", "name": "Real-world use", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "Describing participants' language backgrounds in linguistic research", "Selecting consultants for language documentation and grammatical judgments", "Understanding early language acquisition and bilingual development", "Describing language biographies in education and language assessment" ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-real-world-use-q01", "text": "Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of native speaker this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-measurements", "name": "Typical measurements", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ { "quantity": "Age at onset of language acquisition", "typical_range": "Early childhood; no universally accepted cutoff defines native-speaker status", "unit": "years" } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-measurements-q01", "text": "Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of native speaker this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards", "name": "Failure modes and hazards", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "Treating native-speaker status as proof of teaching ability, literacy, translation competence or specialist vocabulary", "Inferring language history from nationality, ancestry, ethnicity or accent", "Excluding multilingual speakers because they do not match a monolingual ideal", "Treating one speaker's judgments as representative of every dialect or community", "Ignoring language attrition and changes in language dominance over a person's lifetime" ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards-q01", "text": "Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of native speaker this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-regional-variation", "name": "Regional variation", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "The labels native language, mother tongue and first language may refer to different combinations of acquisition history, family affiliation and identity across institutions and communities.", "Local language varieties may differ from the standardized variety used in schooling, so native acquisition does not establish command of that standard." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-regional-variation-q01", "text": "Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of native speaker this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-neighbours", "name": "Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ { "name": "First-language speaker", "difference": "Often synonymous; first-language terminology emphasizes acquisition history, while native-speaker labeling can additionally invoke identity or community recognition." }, { "name": "Heritage speaker", "difference": "Defined by a family or community language background within a setting where another language is dominant; heritage and native-speaker categories can overlap." }, { "name": "Highly proficient second-language speaker", "difference": "High proficiency describes present ability; native-speaker status conventionally concerns early acquisition." }, { "name": "Dominant-language speaker", "difference": "Dominance concerns relative strength or use across a person's languages and can change independently of which languages were acquired first." }, { "name": "Language teacher", "difference": "Teaching is an occupational role requiring pedagogical competence; native-speaker status is a language-background classification." } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-neighbours-q01", "text": "Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of native speaker this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Which definition of native speaker should govern this registry entry, and how should competing scholarly and community definitions be represented?", "How should early receptive bilingualism, interrupted childhood acquisition and later reclamation affect classification under the chosen definition?", "Which distinctions among native language, first language, mother tongue and heritage language are necessary across the communities using this model?", "How should the model accommodate signed-language acquisition histories, including delayed access to an accessible first language?", "What minimum evidence is appropriate for each intended use, and when should the model leave status unresolved?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 11, "findings": 17, "questions": 35 } }