Hermeneia

Hermeneia is a voking language for querying what a particular can become under a use.

It is the query language for Vocarium, a trope database of vokeable particulars. Hermeneia does not merely select rows or retrieve records. It calls stored particulars into relation with a purpose, context, use-model, warrant, or challenge.

Hermeneia asks:

Can this particular become an answer here?
What does it call forth?
What happens when it crosses context?
What breaks when it is challenged?
What previous licence must now be withdrawn?

Core idea

A normal query language asks:

SELECT records WHERE condition;

Hermeneia asks:

invoke this particular
under this use-model
show what is preserved, lost, licensed, or insufficient

Hermeneia is therefore not only a retrieval language. It is an imminence language: a language for asking what a stored particular is about to count as, become, or disclose under a declared use.

The voke family

Hermeneia is organised around voking operations.

To voke is to call a stored particular into a use-relation.

| Operation | Meaning | | ----------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | | invoke | call a particular into a declared use | | evoke | call forth neighbouring or latent particulars | | convoke | call multiple particulars together | | transvoke | call a particular across context, bearer, record, or use | | provoke | call a particular into challenge or stress-test | | intervoke | call between trope paths or candidates | | revoke | call back or withdraw a previous licence |

Implemented end-to-end and tested: invoke. The other six are recognised by keyword and refused as unimplemented (their bodies are not parsed) — status table in docs/SPEC.adoc.

Hermeneia does not select rows. Hermeneia vokes tropes.

Example: invoke

invoke "authentic language"
under use_model "critical-paraphrase"
show verdict, loss, warrant

Possible result:

verdict: p-insufficient

loss:
  quality   Attenuated(6)
  bearer    Present
  context   Present
  record    Present

reason:
  The paraphrase "real language" preserves a loose ordinary association
  but loses the theoretical force carried by "authentic".

Example: evoke

evoke around "authentic language"
within context "de Man / Romantic irony"
limit quality_loss <= Attenuated(3)

This asks what nearby tropes, claims, quotations, paraphrases, or warrants are resonant with the original particular without exceeding the chosen loss bound.

Example: convoke

convoke [
  "authentic language",
  "poetry",
  "myth",
  "madness"
]
under use_model "critical-reading"
show constellation

This brings several particulars into a shared interpretive scene.

Example: transvoke

transvoke "authentic language"
from context "source quotation"
to context "student paraphrase"
show path, attenuation, failed_floors

This traces what happens when a trope crosses from one use-context into another.

Example: provoke

provoke "real language"
against "authentic language"
under use_model "technical-paraphrase"
show failure_points

This stress-tests a candidate substitution or interpretation.

Example: revoke

revoke verdict "v_2041"
because warrant "source_check_failed"

This withdraws a previously licensed answer when its warrant, evidence, or use-model no longer holds.

Where this repo sits

Vocabulary track: trope-particularity-workbench → haec → trope-checker (verdict). Store/query track: haec → vocarium → hermeneia → trope-checker (verdict). trope-checker depends on nothing (HC-1); the workbench depends on nothing; vocarium and hermeneia meet at the M2 StoreProvider adapter (vocarium ADR-0002: wire, do not link).

Relationship to Vocarium

Hermeneia queries Vocarium, the database of vokeable particulars.

Vocarium holds:
  tropes
  transformation paths
  grades
  warrants
  use-models
  verdicts

Hermeneia asks:
  what can these particulars become under use?

Relationship to Haec

Haec records transformations. Hermeneia queries them.

Haec:
  attenuate[2] u
  project[{quality, record}] v
  fuse[source_quote] x y

Hermeneia:
  invoke v under use_model "critical-paraphrase"
  transvoke x from source to essay
  provoke y against submitted_claim

Haec is the transformation language. Hermeneia is the voking language. Vocarium is the store.

Design principle

Hermeneia separates three things that ordinary query languages often collapse:

retrieved       — the database found it
interpretable   — it can be meaningfully read under this context
licensed        — it is p-sufficient under this use-model

A result may be retrieved but not licensed. It may be interpretable but insufficient. It may be p-sufficient under one use-model and fail under another.

That distinction is the point.

Status

Hermeneia is an experimental query language for trope-aware, loss-aware, warrant-aware databases. It is intended for work on particularity-preserving computation, interpretive databases, AI-assisted scholarship, evidential reasoning, paraphrase discipline, and transformation-aware knowledge systems.