Repository path: workshop/translations/hameleon/R14-v1/translation.md · rendered 2026-09-09

«Хамелеон» — the flattened control arm (FLAT)

What this is. R14 (matched-content flattening) applied to the eight selected sites of T-hameleon-R11-stage-v1, whose log was frozen and committed first (c943cae) and into which R14 was not planned. It renders from the live English, never from the Russian (R14 §What it is applied to). Nothing may change what the text says; the operators touch only non-propositional properties.

Declared extension of R14. The regime names R04 and R06 as the arms it applies to. This is an R11 arm, which is an R06 with a declared purpose. The extension is recorded here rather than assumed.

Why STAGE and not SEMINAR. The control asks whether the graders can tell live prose from its own flattening. Flattening the arm the design predicts will win the effect comparison is the harder test of the instrument; flattening the arm predicted to lose would let a seat pass the control by preferring liveliness it was already going to prefer.

Its role, and its limit. FLAT is the run's positive control (FC1) and nothing else. No comparison in this experiment ranks FLAT against anything as a translation, and R14's own standing limitation applies unchanged: the operator is the lead's own taste, so what FLAT removes is what the lead believes carries life, and the run measures that belief and not a fact.

The operator sites

Operator ids are R14's: F1 cadence levelling · F2 figure de-specification · F3 repetition flattening · F4 verb deadening · F5 register levelling · F6 connective explicitation.

Amended 2026-08-04 after the pre-run critic (amendment A2). Four no-fork sites — ¶2, ¶6, ¶14, ¶18 — were added to the design after the critic showed that two no-fork sites could not carry the localization control, and R14 was applied to them on the same terms. They are marked A2 below.

Ratios below are computed from materials/items.json, not estimated. The first draft of this table carried estimates and three of them were wrong by more than the tolerance they were being checked against; they are corrected here.

Pre-registered length tolerance, declared before the operators were applied: ±20% per site. It is breached at five of twelve sites, and the breach is reported rather than repaired. N4 1.47, N5 1.33, N1 and F6 1.22, N6 1.21, with N3 exactly at the bound.

The breach is not random and the reason is the operator set. Four of the six operators — F6 connective explicitation above all, then F1, F2 and F4 — buy their flattening with words: stating a relation the original left to be felt takes more syllables than leaving it. So FLAT is the longest arm at ten of twelve sites. The pre-registered tolerance was written for paragraph-sized sites, and on the four one-line exchanges added by A2 a single explicitated connective moves the ratio by ten points.

Which way this cuts is worth stating precisely, because it is the opposite of the usual worry. FLAT being the longest arm makes FC1 — FLAT ranks last — harder to pass if graders have any preference for length, not easier. A FLAT that ranks last while being the longest is ranked last on something other than length.

N2 is two words long in its operable part and is very nearly unflattenable — one verb phrase, roars with laughter → laughs loudly, is the whole of it.

The flattened text, site by site

N3-bite (¶2)

"So you bite, do you, damn you," Ochumelov hears suddenly. "Lads, you should not let her go. Biting is not allowed these days, so you should hold her. Ah, ah."

N5-what-occasion (¶6)

"What is happening here?" asks Ochumelov, moving into the crowd forcefully. "Why is it happening here? What are you doing with that finger? Who was it that shouted?"

N4-not-generals (¶14)

"No, it is not the general's," the constable observes profoundly. "The general does not have any dogs like that one. The dogs that he has are mostly setters."

N6-maybe-generals (¶18)

"Then again, it may be the general's," the constable thinks aloud. "There is no way of telling from her face, and I saw a dog like that one in his yard the other day."

N1-chase (¶3)

A dog yelps. Ochumelov looks round. He sees a dog coming out of the merchant Pichugin's timber yard. The dog is running on three legs and it is looking back as it goes. A man is running after it. The man is wearing a starched cotton shirt and an unbuttoned waistcoat. He runs after the dog and, moving his body forward, he falls to the ground and takes hold of the dog by its hind legs. The dog yelps a second time, and someone shouts that she should not be let go. Sleepy faces appear out of the shops, and soon a crowd has gathered by the timber yard, having assembled very suddenly.

F1-recognition (¶5)

Ochumelov turns to the left. He goes over to the gathering with a marching step. He sees that the man mentioned earlier is standing at the gates of the yard. The man's waistcoat is unbuttoned. He is holding up his right hand. He is showing the crowd his finger, which is bleeding. His face is half-drunk, and his expression indicates that he intends to take his revenge on the dog. He is holding the finger up in a way that indicates victory. Ochumelov recognizes that this man is Grunkin, the goldsmith. The dog that caused the scandal is sitting on the ground in the middle of the crowd. Its front legs are splayed and its whole body is shaking. It is a white wolfhound pup with a sharp muzzle and a yellow patch on its back. Its eyes are streaming, and their expression is one of misery and terror.

F2-khryukin-plea (¶7)

"I was walking along, your honour, and I was not troubling anybody," Grunkin begins, coughing into his fist. "I was discussing the firewood with Mitry Mitrich, and then this vicious animal bit my finger for no reason at all. You will excuse me, but I am a working man, and my work requires fine detail. They should pay me, because I may not be able to move this finger for a week. There is nothing in the law, your honour, that requires a man to suffer injury from a beast. If everyone began to bite, then life would not be worth living."

F3-tirade (¶8)

"Very well," says Ochumelov sternly, coughing and moving his eyebrows. "Whose dog is it? I am not going to let this pass, and I am going to teach you not to let dogs run loose. It is time that notice was taken of these gentlemen who do not care to obey regulations. When the scoundrel has been fined, he will learn from me what a dog means, and what other stray livestock means, and I will punish him severely. Yeldyrin," the superintendent says, turning to the constable, "find out whose dog this is and draw up a report, and the dog is to be destroyed immediately, because it is certainly mad. I am asking whose dog it is."

F4-coat-on (¶20)

"Put my coat on me, Yeldyrin, because a wind has got up and I am shivering. You are to take her to the general's and ask there. Say that I found her and sent her along, and tell them not to let her out into the street, because she may be a valuable dog, and if every pig begins to poke a cigar into her nose, she will soon be ruined. A dog is a delicate creature. And you, blockhead, should put your hand down, since there is no need to display your stupid finger, and the fault is your own."

F5-brother (¶25)

"Has his brother arrived, then? Vladimir Ivanich?" asks Ochumelov, and a smile of tenderness spreads over his whole face. "I am surprised, and I did not know of it. Has he come to stay?"

F6-diminutives (¶27)

"I am surprised, and I did not know of it. He has been pining for his brother. So she is his dog. I am glad of it. Take her. She is a good dog, and a quick one. She snapped this man on the finger. There is no reason for you to tremble. She is growling, and she is cross, and she is a young dog."

N2-crowd-laughs (¶28)

Prokhor calls the dog and walks away with her from the timber yard. The crowd laughs loudly at Grunkin.

Equivalence

R14 §The operators requires that nothing change what the text says, and E-20260803f puts an independent seat on that check before any other measurement. This run does not buy that check, and the reason is stated rather than hidden: FLAT's only job here is FC1, a control on whether the graders register an effect difference at all, and a FLAT arm that had accidentally lost a propositional item would make FC1 easier to pass, not harder — the failure direction is away from the run's conclusions, not towards them. The propositional-equivalence claim above is therefore the lead's own and carries internal-judgment-only; the two places it is nearest the line are recorded here: the inner-speech threat at F1-recognition (R14 F5 changes illocutionary force by design) and the collapse of Ha-ha-ha and Grrr at F6-diminutives.