The grounded framework (the paper's body)

The single consolidated paper builds its analytic apparatus from MW's own data, before any external theory. This page tours that body; the two companion pages cover the triangulation against three external frameworks and the framework appendices.

📄 Canonical paper: PAPER.md in MWS docs-pass (§3–§6 are the body summarised here).

Trust Block

Five core constructs

  1. Block — a discriminable structural component (18 in MW).
  2. Slot — an ordered position within an entry (slot architecture, not free-form).
  3. Profile — the block-set characteristic of an article type (14 in MW).
  4. Hedge — a block that modifies the entry's evidentiary status (<ls>L.</ls> is MW's singular hedge).
  5. Infrastructure — blocks supporting processability, not content (F17 machine annotation, F18 correction records).

Central thesis: block economy

MW reuses a small ~6-block kernel (F01, F02, F04, F10, F12, F17) across 286,561 entries, with type-driven enrichments added sparingly — block economy.

Heatmap: 18 blocks × 14 article types

Audit note. A cross-dictionary check shows the economy shape (small modal kernel + long tail) is common across the structured-bilingual CDSL dictionaries, not unique to MW (modal blocks/entry: MW 5, PWG 4, PWK 3, AP 2, WIL 3, Benfey 3, Cappeller 3). This should not be reduced to a simple "single-volume vs multi-volume" claim: PWG, PWK, SKD, and VCP are all seven-volume works, yet PWG is tagged-citation dense, PWK is compacted, and SKD/VCP are genre-bound prose lexica. See PAPER.md §9.3 and the all-dictionary coverage tool.

See also


Tour page. Canonical text: PAPER.md.