A.6.5:1 - Problem frame

Plain name. Relation-declaration slot discipline.

Use this when. Use this pattern after the direct relation kind has been recovered and a reusable typed declaration of its participants is current for another assertion, comparison, substitution, or reference use. Typical triggers are one relation declaration reused across patterns, another relation referring to an explicitly individuated occurrence, or an engineer checking a proposed replacement participant against the declared ValueKind.

Primary working reader and concern. The intended reader is an engineer making one relation declaration reusable.

Primary EntityOfConcern. One SlotSpec declaration in one exact RelationSignature.

First useful move. Write the readable relation sentence, identify the relation kind and relation-participant meanings, and name where its predicate, applicability, and identity rule are defined. For every relation-participant meaning whose reusable typed declaration is current, add one SlotSpec to the RelationSignature, using the compact declaration notation SlotSpec = <SlotKind, ValueKind, refMode>. refMode states how an assertion or relation-occurrence description episteme carrying a relation-participant designation denotes the actual participant. When a reference is used, it retains its RefKind and its referent retains the declared ValueKind; the SlotSpec remains declaration content. If the direct relation or its relation obtaining predicate is still unclear, stop and use A.6.P or A.6.RSIR; declaration notation cannot recover a missing ontology.

First-minute result. For Robot_7 is assigned to InspectorSystemRole for this inspection shift, start from an independently defined species under U.SystemRoleAssignment, here illustrated as InspectionShiftAssignment, and use its predicate and case facts to determine whether a shift occurrence obtains. When reusable participant typing is needed, give HolderSystemSlot the value kind U.System and entity-reference mode; give AssignedSystemRoleKindSlot the value domain InspectorSystemRoleKindDomain and by-value reference mode. Add another participant only when it changes the predicate or occurrence identity. An assertion designates the occurrence’s participants and states its assignmentInterval separately. Stop there unless later work must substitute a participant, distinguish this assignment episode from another, or test an A.2.5 state condition.

What goes wrong if missed. In the readable sentence Robot_7 is assigned to InspectorSystemRole, the holder system, the exact system-role kind, each declaration-local SlotKind, and each participant designation carried by an assertion episteme can collapse into one word such as role or holder. A later claim then cannot tell what may be substituted, what retains identity, or whether it refers to a system, a system-role kind, an assignment occurrence, an assignment-state relation, or an assertion about either occurrence.

What this buys. Engineers retain a readable relation sentence while its load-bearing uses gain exact participant typing, unambiguous reference use, and a clear route to the definitions or constraints for predicate truth and occurrence identity.

Not this pattern when. Use A.6.P or A.6.RSIR first while the relation kind or its participants remain unresolved. Use A.6.REL for relation-occurrence identity, A.6.0 for the containing U.Signature, C.2.1 for an assertion or description, and C.3 for a local kind needed by membership, substitution, typed quantification, or subkind use; use C.3.2 for its declaration, membership judgment, or optional extension. In every other case, find the direct relation’s accepted definition before applying this slot discipline.

The worked cases below are contrasts only; none supplies another relation’s predicate or definition.

The following objects meet at this boundary and remain distinct:

1. an obtaining relation occurrence in the world;
2. the direct relation kind and its predicate;
3. a RelationSignature episteme whose content includes SlotSpecs corresponding to the direct relation’s relation-participant meanings and restates its predicate, applicability, and identity rule for reuse;
4. a SlotSpec containing the declaration-local SlotKind name for one relation-participant meaning, its actual-participant ValueKind, and its designation mode;
5. an assertion or other episteme claiming that the relation obtains.

Use the A.6.REL relation-object architecture. A relation-participant meaning is the relation-local semantic content specifying one domain contribution to the obtaining predicate. An actual relation participant is the concrete entity participating in an obtaining occurrence under that meaning while retaining its intrinsic kind. A SlotSpec is declaration content corresponding to the relation-participant meaning. A relation-participant designation is the value or reference of a declared RefKind carried by an assertion or relation-occurrence description episteme to denote the actual participant. Source-specific vocabulary keeps its meaning inside the source representation or ontology until an explicit correspondence relates it to the named FPF object.

The RelationSignature and SlotSpecs are declaration content about reusable relation semantics. The world-side relation obtains under its direct predicate and identity rule independently of those epistemes. In Tech register, SlotKind is the declaration-local kind by which one RelationSignature distinguishes a relation-participant meaning. World-side relation prose names the meaning and actual participant directly; the relation occurrence contains no SlotKind. In an assertion or relation-occurrence description episteme, the corresponding SlotSpec distinguishes a relation-participant designation carried by value or by a reference of the declared RefKind. External representation elements retain their source-specific names. A declared correspondence must relate such an element to a named SlotSpec before an FPF relation claim can reuse it.