FPF Reference

A.6.P:4.4 — Change‑class lexicon (operations are not adjectives)

Preface node heading:a-6-p-4-4-change-class-lexicon-operations-are-not-adjectives:10796

Content

A RPR‑pattern SHALL publish a relation‑change lexicon: a small set of semantic change classes used in normative prose to describe “what changed” without umbrella verbs.

Minimum semantic change classes (conceptual; specialisations may add more):

  1. declareRelation — mint a new qualified relation record (slot‑explicit).
  2. withdrawRelation — retire a relation instance (render it inactive for downstream use). If the intent is narrowing (still valid within a smaller scope/window), use rescope/retime rather than overloading withdrawal.
  3. retargetParticipant(slotKind, newRef) — change a RefKind slot-content while preserving SlotKind and ValueKind (conceptually corresponds to slot‑level retarget).
  4. reviseByValue(slotKind, newValue) — edit embedded by‑value content (conceptually corresponds to slot‑level assign/update or “by‑value edit”).
  5. rescope(newScope) — change scope explicitly (no “in our context” prose).
  6. retime(newΓ_time) — change Γ_time when time matters; not a substitute for witness freshness claims.
  7. refreshWitnesses(newWitnessSet) — update witness bindings to point at appropriate carriers; generating evidence is Work, not a constructor op.
  8. changeRelationKind(newRelationKindToken) — semantic change; MUST NOT be treated as an edit‑in‑place.

Edition fence rule (A.6.S / A.6.6 alignment). In decision/publication lanes, any semantic change that alters meaning SHALL be represented as a new edition and connected via explicit continuity/withdrawal, rather than mutating the old record in place.

Mapping note (informative, conceptual). These change classes are semantic; they may be realised by A.6.5 slot verbs (retarget vs by‑value edit) and, when the relation is a basedness family, by A.6.6 base‑change verbs. The semantic story must not collapse into “we edited something”.