B.1.5:4.1 - Recover Parts Before Composition
Do not start from the word “step”. Start from the object claim.
An apparent step can be:
- a
U.Methodsubmethod; - a description constituent inside
U.MethodDescription; - a plan item inside
U.WorkPlan; - a dated
U.Workoccurrence or work part; - an order, fallback, or selector claim among independently identified objects;
- a mathematical or representation lens over selected relations;
- mechanism or formal-substrate material;
- quoted wording that does not yet carry a method claim.
Only the first case can be a method part. Do not mint U.StepSpec, U.StepMethod, U.MethodStep, or U.MethodAlgebra for the others.
B.1.5 directly governs MethodPartOfRelation, expressed in Plain register as methodPartOf(partMethod, wholeMethod). Both participants are exact U.Method values already identified under A.3.1. The predicate obtains exactly when the whole Method’s stable construction rule names the part Method as a required contributor or as an admitted alternative for a required contribution, and that contribution participates in the whole’s reusable action. It establishes neither A.14 structural-component parthood, a work part, nor a transformation part.
One methodPartOf occurrence is determined by the ordered pair <part Method, whole Method>. Every bounded alternative already admitted by the whole’s construction rule can stand in methodPartOf at the same time; dated Work selecting one alternative does not start, end, or recur the other occurrences. For the same two exact Methods, the relation is atemporal: there is no silent cessation and later recurrence. If the construction rule changes so that a part is newly admitted or no longer admitted, the composite Method must be reidentified or the claim remains unresolved; reidentifying either participant gives another pair. This is why the participant pair is sufficient for the narrow family defined in B.1.5 even when actual enactments vary.
The same part Method may also stand in methodPartOf relations to several different whole Methods. Test every pair against the construction rule of its own whole. Each whole keeps its own reusable action, applicability, boundary, constraints, interfaces, accepted variations, and reidentification rule. One supported pair says nothing about another and creates no unique containing Method, discipline-wide whole, kind inheritance, transitivity, fusion, or common-whole closure.
A source label, list membership, diagram containment, shared name, registry entry, description membership, plan position, or work decomposition does not make methodPartOf obtain. When the test fails, keep the apparent step under its subject pattern and do not add a negative part merely to complete a diagram.