Meaning-System Variables (T, P, C, D, A)

Diagnostic dimensions for meaning-system behavior

1. Canonical Definition

Meaning-System Variables are a fixed set of diagnostic dimensions used to assess how a meaning system behaves under load, reuse, and change across time. The variables describe structural conditions and tendencies of a meaning system. They do not generate meaning, authorize binding, govern action, route responses, determine legitimacy, or select outcomes.

The five Meaning-System Variables are Truth Fidelity (T), Signal Alignment (P), Structural Coherence (C), Drift (D), and Affective Regulation (A).

2. Phase and Preconditions

Operates: cross-phase diagnostic assessment

Requires:

• an admissible meaning system

Does not require:

• interpretive jurisdiction

• binding

• Action-Governing Meaning

• response routing

• Event Closure State resolution

• crystallization

• legitimacy

• action execution

Some variables have additional applicability constraints. For example, Drift (D) presupposes a crystallized governing baseline.

3. Scope and Exclusions

Meaning-System Variables are not:

• forces, drivers, or stabilizers

• causal mechanisms

• governance or binding conditions

• routing criteria

• authority or legitimacy qualifiers

• regime classifiers

• substitutes for crystallization, drift, or Action Determinacy Loss

• psychological traits, emotional states, or subjective capacities

The variables do not intervene in the interpretive process and do not determine outcomes.

4. Structural Role

Meaning-System Variables provide a standardized diagnostic vocabulary for evaluating meaning-system reliability, stability, and transformation risk without collapsing diagnosis into governance, authority, or moral evaluation.

They enable comparative analysis across systems and across time by describing how a meaning system maintains alignment, coherence, tolerance for ambiguity, and correction capacity under pressure. The variables support disciplined assessment and intervention planning without prescribing action or assigning responsibility.

5. Authority and Legitimacy Status

Authority relation: none

Legitimacy relation: none

Meaning-System Variables do not confer, modify, evaluate, or revoke authority or legitimacy. Diagnostic assessment using these variables has no governance force.

6. The Five Meaning-System Variables

• Truth Fidelity (T)
  The degree to which interpretation within a meaning system remains answerable to its declared reference conditions. Truth Fidelity assesses whether meaning continues to track what the system treats as real, relevant, or binding rather than drifting toward convenience, coherence alone, or internal consistency.

• Signal Alignment (P)
  The consistency among signals, instructions, interpretations, decisions, and enacted constraints within a meaning system. Signal Alignment assesses whether what is communicated, interpreted, and enacted remains mutually reinforcing rather than contradictory or fragmented.

• Structural Coherence (C)
  The degree to which a meaning system’s architecture supports non-contradictory interpretation, governance, and correction. Structural Coherence assesses whether system structure enables stable coordination without requiring informal workarounds or compensatory overrides.

• Drift (D)
  The diagnostic dimension corresponding to the accumulation of inconsistency over time in a crystallized governing baseline when correction capacity is insufficient. Drift as a variable assesses the extent of accumulated misalignment. The underlying phenomenon is defined under Drift.

• Affective Regulation (A)
  The capacity of a meaning system to tolerate ambiguity, consequence, and corrective pressure without forcing premature binding or suppressing necessary reinterpretation. Affective Regulation assesses tolerance for uncertainty and feedback at the system level, not emotional experience.

7. Common Category Errors

• treating variables as causal drivers or explanatory forces

• using variable values to justify binding, regime classification, or authority claims

• assuming high variable values imply correctness or legitimacy

• applying Drift diagnostics where no crystallized baseline exists

• collapsing diagnostic assessment into psychological evaluation

• treating Affective Regulation as an individual trait

8. Canonical Cross-References

Meaning System • Interpretation • Binding • Meaning Regimes (PCMR / DMR) • Crystallization • Drift • Action Determinacy Loss (ADL)

9. Plain Statement

Meaning-System Variables describe how a meaning system is functioning. They do not decide what the system means or what it must do.