Bow Tie Kreative Writing System
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Rules / syntax

SYN-018 Hard constraint layer: sentence

Match sentence force to intent

IF the intended speech act is command, question, assertion, offer, or warning, THEN select a grammatical form that makes that act clear ELSE request intent.

Why the rule exists

Readers act on what the sentence is doing, not just what its words denote.

Condition

The rule fires when this evaluates true. Paths marked below must be present in the fact base; the engine reports the rest rather than guessing them.

  • sentence.intended_speech_act exists

Facts this rule reads

PathSource
sentence.intended_speech_act You supply it

Then

  1. align — target sentence.mood_and_form, value from sentence.intended_speech_act

Else

  1. request_context — target sentence.intended_speech_act

LAKA

Smallest sufficient intervention
Yes
Primary axes

Sources

  • Rhetorical Situations — Purdue Online Writing Lab link
    Author, audience, purpose, text, and setting as communication constraints.
  • The Sense of Style — Steven Pinker
    Reader-centered clarity informed by linguistics and cognition.
The raw rule record

Verbatim from 09-syntax-and-sentence-rules.json. Also available at /v1/rules/SYN-018.

{
  "id": "SYN-018",
  "name": "Match sentence force to intent",
  "domain": "syntax",
  "layer": "sentence",
  "strength": "hard_constraint",
  "human_logic": "IF the intended speech act is command, question, assertion, offer, or warning, THEN select a grammatical form that makes that act clear ELSE request intent.",
  "when": {
    "path": "sentence.intended_speech_act",
    "operator": "exists"
  },
  "then": [
    {
      "action": "align",
      "target": "sentence.mood_and_form",
      "value_from": "sentence.intended_speech_act"
    }
  ],
  "else": [
    {
      "action": "request_context",
      "target": "sentence.intended_speech_act"
    }
  ],
  "unless": [],
  "because": "Readers act on what the sentence is doing, not just what its words denote.",
  "diagnostics": [],
  "examples": {},
  "source_ids": [
    "WEB-010",
    "BK-008"
  ],
  "laka": {
    "smallest_sufficient_intervention": true,
    "primary_axes": [
      "scope",
      "depth",
      "magnitude",
      "reversibility"
    ]
  }
}

Other syntax rules

  1. SYN-001 Complete clause for formal prose IF a unit is presented as a formal prose sentence AND lacks an independent clause, THEN attach it, complete it, or label it as a fragment ELSE retain. Hard constraint
  2. SYN-002 Separate fused independent clauses IF adjacent independent clauses have no valid boundary, THEN add a coordinator and punctuation, a semicolon, or a period ELSE retain. Hard constraint
  3. SYN-003 Prefer visible actor–action order IF the reader must act or identify responsibility AND no stronger reason favors passive voice, THEN place the actor before the action ELSE retain. Context default
  4. SYN-004 Use passive voice for a reason IF a clause is passive, THEN retain it only when the receiver is the topic, the actor is unknown or irrelevant, blame should be softened, or domain convention requires it ELSE convert to active. Context default
  5. SYN-005 Put conditions before instructions IF an instruction applies only under a condition, THEN state the condition before the imperative ELSE give the action directly. Context default
  6. SYN-006 One principal action per procedural step IF a step contains multiple independently verifiable actions, THEN split them into ordered steps ELSE retain a tightly coupled action. Context default
  7. SYN-007 Limit nested clauses for general audiences IF clause nesting exceeds two levels AND the audience is not expert-only, THEN split or promote a buried clause ELSE retain necessary complexity. Heuristic
  8. SYN-008 Given information before new information IF a sentence introduces new information before the anchor it depends on, THEN reorder from shared context to new contribution ELSE retain a deliberate surprise. Heuristic