From 8cf1ce502996de6f96a39d7eef243a54bdf21812 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "Derek T. Jones" Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2026 21:01:28 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] Write down what looking, examining, and searching each ask The three are not the same question. "look" asks what is here, "look at" asks what a thing is showing, and "search" asks what it is withholding. Examining takes what an object offers; searching takes what it keeps back, which is why the one leaves the world alone and the other rarely does. That 'examine' is a synonym of 'look' is a convention and not a semantics -- the English word sits nearer the thorough thing -- and it was worth saying out loud, because it is the kind of decision that reads as an oversight to anyone who wasn't there when it was made. The other new paragraph is the rule that a word belongs to whichever definition claims it first; a later claim on a word already spoken for is dropped in silence. This file is included ahead of every game's own lexicon, so a word added here is one no game can take back. Nothing in the repository said so, and "The Gorreven Papers" carries a dead 'syn' line that shows how easy it is not to know. Comments are stripped before compilation, so both goldens are byte for byte unchanged. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_013Ui8UMgev1U8LW5iyQdSsJ --- games/lexicon.arch | 25 +++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 25 insertions(+) diff --git a/games/lexicon.arch b/games/lexicon.arch index cd668ca..800cf44 100644 --- a/games/lexicon.arch +++ b/games/lexicon.arch @@ -1,6 +1,31 @@ # LEXICON.ACH # # Archetype's baseline lexicon. +# +# A word belongs to whichever definition claims it first, and a later claim on +# a word already spoken for is dropped without complaint. This file is +# included ahead of any game's own lexicon, so a word named here is a word no +# game can take back. Adding one is not an additive change. + + +# Looking, and the rungs above it. +# +# There are three questions a player can put to an object, and they are not +# the same question: +# +# look what is here? +# look at, x what is this thing showing me? +# search what is this thing withholding? +# +# Examining takes what an object offers. Searching takes what it keeps back. +# Examining leaves the world alone; searching usually does not -- it opens, it +# spills, it moves the player closer. +# +# 'examine' is a synonym of 'look' below, and not of the thorough thing its +# English sense suggests. That is the convention rather than the semantics: +# players' fingers type "examine" when they mean "look at", and the parser +# that argues with them loses. The third rung has no baseline verb, so a game +# that wants one defines it -- as "The Gorreven Papers" does. Verb lookV full : 'look' syn : 'look at|x|l|examine' end