Seventy-one codes, frozen 19 August 2026. Fifty-one are Saussure's own; twenty are a post-Saussurean extension layer, marked EXT, kept separate so that any finding can be recomputed without them. Counts are hits across the full corpus; each links to its quotations.
58 used · 13 dark · 1219 applications across 287 quotations
Reconciliation record
12 codings were changed in ATLAS.ti after the chapter plans had been written. The build replays every one of them explicitly and then refuses to produce these pages unless all seventy-one counts match the live project, so the numbers here cannot silently drift from the project they describe.
| Locus | Withdrawn | Added | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ch02 3204 | AXIS: predicate assignment | AXIS: predicate assignment - communication | R1 reclassified 'our medical projection says' as a communication verb. |
| Ch03 14015 | AXIS: predicate assignment | AXIS: predicate assignment - communication | R1 reclassified 'something tells him' as a communication verb. |
| Ch03 19328 | CAL: no code fits | SIGN: machine self-deixis, XREF: orthogonal reading | The wanted code this passage logged was then created as SIGN: machine self-deixis and applied here, so CAL: no code fits no longer holds. |
| Ch18 15854 | AXIS: predicate assignment | — | R1 forbids both AXIS predicate codes on one quotation; the conservative code was withdrawn because 'set itself up' is an action, not cognition. |
The remaining 8 are additions of an XREF: code by the Chapter Three cross-instrument sweep, which ran after that chapter's plan was written and was recorded in ATLAS.ti directly: Ch03 1611, Ch03 4151, Ch03 11713, Ch03 13027, Ch03 13669, Ch03 13792, Ch03 14553, Ch03 16829.
SIGN — Constitution of the two-sided sign
SIGN: signifier isolated
Cross-level · CGL · 35 hits
The passage foregrounds a sign-vehicle -- a name, a word, a voice, a trademark -- with no signified yet attached to it. The paradigm case is a proper name delivered before the reader knows what it names. Code the signifier, not the entity.
Ch02 3275 Ch04 29030 Ch04 29084 Ch05 541 Ch07 19282 Ch07 23335 Ch09 4261 Ch09 12339 Ch09 12705 Ch12 8536 Ch14 11005 Ch14 16284 Ch15 20469 Ch16 19580 Ch17 9080 Ch17 14466 Ch18 5586 Ch18 5764 Ch18 5986 Ch19 4628 Ch19 4875 Ch19 8392 Ch20 1966 Ch20 18212 Ch20 5244 Ch21 412 Ch21 2996 Ch21 4513 Ch21 4758 Ch21 4791 Ch23 5546 Ch23 6858 Ch23 11792 Ch23 13265 Ch23 10900
SIGN: signified isolated
Cross-level · CGL · 19 hits
A concept is in play with no signifier available to carry it: the entity that has not been named, the thing a character can point at but cannot call anything. Distinguish from SIGN: bond severed, where a name existed and came loose.
Ch02 3275 Ch02 6603 Ch02 6703 Ch03 13937 Ch03 14015 Ch04 29084 Ch06 6308 Ch08 16481 Ch09 13328 Ch16 1119 Ch18 8836 Ch19 2748 Ch19 8709 Ch19 8752 Ch20 9360 Ch20 10618 Ch21 4227 Ch24 2041 Ch24 5136
SIGN: bond asserted
Cross-level · CGL · 7 hits
Signifier and signified are presented as joined and unremarkable. The text uses the term as though its content were settled. This is the unmarked default; code it only where the assertion is doing visible work.
Ch05 2814 Ch05 3158 Ch07 23127 Ch09 11488 Ch21 6193 Ch24 3314 Ch24 4892
SIGN: bond severed
Cross-level · CGL · 16 hits
A previously joined signifier and signified come apart: the name no longer holds the concept, or the concept outruns the name. Dixie's insistence that he is not what his voice implies belongs here.
Ch06 1596 Ch07 19937 Ch08 8558 Ch09 12509 Ch11 6733 Ch15 11527 Ch15 22269 Ch16 13511 Ch17 14466 Ch20 1966 Ch20 8970 Ch22 57 Ch22 4044 Ch22 6147 Ch24 4481 Ch24 6703
SIGN: floating attachment
Level B - langue · CGL · 39 hits
One signifier migrates across signifieds within the corpus without settling -- 'construct', 'personality', and 'it' are the likely carriers. Requires at least two distinct attachments to be visible in the passage or in an adjacent coded passage; note the pair in the margin.
Ch01 3306 Ch01 4399 Ch02 2452 Ch02 4539 Ch03 66 Ch03 12062 Ch03 13257 Ch03 13393 Ch03 13669 Ch03 14553 Ch04 7122 Ch05 11228 Ch05 15864 Ch06 1596 Ch06 2980 Ch07 9309 Ch07 15541 Ch08 10023 Ch08 16157 Ch08 16256 Ch09 12509 Ch09 13328 Ch10 4310 Ch10 7888 Ch11 14596 Ch12 10537 Ch14 10640 Ch16 7541 Ch16 12197 Ch17 10838 Ch17 2866 Ch18 5557 Ch18 15854 Ch19 8392 Ch22 7238 Ch22 7767 Ch23 3629 Ch24 556 Ch24 6624
SIGN: empty signifier
Level B - langue · EXT · 4 hits
A signifier circulates with no determinable signified at all, functioning as a placeholder that other terms are organised around. Post-Saussurean (Laclau) and admitted here only as a limit case of value; do not use it where SIGN: signifier isolated will do.
SIGN: machine self-deixis
Level A - parole · EXT · 36 hits
A machine refers to itself in the first person -- I, me, my -- without any mental predicate being present. Created 19 Aug 2026, forced by NM_P2_Ch03 19328-19392, where a security package says "per my program" and is called "it" in the same sentence. Deictic rather than strictly Saussurean (Benveniste), and therefore filed under Post-Saussurean extension.
Ch03 19328 Ch07 23127 Ch08 8106 Ch08 8715 Ch09 11332 Ch09 12339 Ch09 12705 Ch09 13873 Ch10 17159 Ch10 17268 Ch10 19236 Ch11 14596 Ch11 14739 Ch14 10367 Ch14 10640 Ch14 11005 Ch14 12143 Ch14 16537 Ch14 16790 Ch17 8018 Ch17 9914 Ch17 10308 Ch17 10943 Ch18 5764 Ch18 8287 Ch19 5113 Ch19 10662 Ch21 4791 Ch21 5213 Ch23 6858 Ch23 7345 Ch23 7943 Ch23 8356 Ch24 4481 Ch24 4652 Ch24 4736
ARB — Arbitrariness and motivation
ARB: radically arbitrary
Cross-level · CGL · 7 hits
The bond between sign and entity is presented as pure convention, with no natural or derivable connection. Saussure's default condition of the sign; code where the text makes the arbitrariness legible rather than merely presupposing it.
Ch04 29030 Ch05 541 Ch05 3158 Ch19 8392 Ch20 1966 Ch20 10618 Ch22 6147
ARB: relatively motivated
Cross-level · CGL · 11 hits
Saussure's own qualification: the sign's form is partly derivable from other signs in the system. 'Neuromancer' (neuro + romancer, and audibly necromancer) and 'Wintermute' are the two governing cases; 'flatline', 'cowboy', and 'ICE' are lesser ones.
Ch01 4399 Ch02 2452 Ch03 66 Ch03 13185 Ch03 13792 Ch06 2980 Ch08 16157 Ch11 19747 Ch12 10537 Ch20 5244 Ch21 4791
ARB: motivation claimed
Level A - parole · CGL · 4 hits
A character or the narration asserts that the name fits the thing -- that the sign is earned rather than assigned. An in-text denial of arbitrariness, and therefore evidence about the langue rather than about the entity.
ARB: motivation denied
Level A - parole · CGL · dark
A character or the narration insists the name is only a label, arbitrary and detachable. The reciprocal of the above; the pair together indexes where the community is arguing about its own code.
ARB: naming event
Cross-level · CGL · 7 hits
The discrete textual moment at which a signifier is attached to an entity for the first time. Rare, datable, and high-yield: Wintermute in Chapter Four, Neuromancer in Chapter Twenty-One. Record chapter and speaker in the quotation comment.
Ch03 19722 Ch04 27462 Ch04 29030 Ch08 16157 Ch21 2996 Ch21 4791 Ch21 6193
ARB: iconic residue
Cross-level · CGL · 1 hit
The marginal cases Saussure conceded -- onomatopoeia, interjection, and sound-symbolism -- where the signifier retains some non-arbitrary purchase. Expected to be sparse. A high count here is a signal that the coder is reading Peirce's icon into a Saussurean slot; see CAL: dyad strain.
VAL — Value through difference
VAL: opposition stated
Cross-level · CGL · 72 hits
The text explicitly places two terms in contrast, so that each is defined against the other. The contrast must be on the page, not supplied by the coder.
Ch01 4652 Ch01 5822 Ch01 13848 Ch01 16542 Ch02 6703 Ch02 20589 Ch03 13185 Ch03 13257 Ch03 13393 Ch03 14553 Ch03 15256 Ch03 16829 Ch04 283 Ch04 489 Ch04 2851 Ch04 8171 Ch04 17527 Ch05 2926 Ch05 3666 Ch05 12727 Ch05 11228 Ch05 15864 Ch06 4836 Ch07 7039 Ch07 11583 Ch07 15832 Ch07 16497 Ch08 8106 Ch08 8209 Ch08 8715 Ch08 9213 Ch08 17671 Ch09 11332 Ch09 12509 Ch09 15132 Ch10 4310 Ch10 4712 Ch10 9993 Ch10 17159 Ch10 17734 Ch10 18663 Ch11 1079 Ch11 6733 Ch11 8464 Ch11 18335 Ch11 19747 Ch11 21642 Ch12 3178 Ch12 9266 Ch13 1352 Ch13 6159 Ch13 7639 Ch13 7764 Ch13 8362 Ch13 8767 Ch14 8747 Ch14 10367 Ch14 15136 Ch14 15461 Ch14 16790 Ch15 11527 Ch15 20876 Ch16 1151 Ch16 7908 Ch18 11942 Ch18 12254 Ch20 6196 Ch20 9360 Ch21 4227 Ch23 6858 Ch23 7345 Ch24 3314
VAL: opposition implied
Cross-level · CGL · 48 hits
A contrast carried by collocation, syntax, or scene construction without being stated. Weaker evidence than the above, and kept separate so the two can be counted apart.
Ch01 254 Ch01 1282 Ch01 10036 Ch01 11574 Ch01 15665 Ch01 38985 Ch01 45318 Ch01 45552 Ch02 2581 Ch02 4539 Ch02 8792 Ch02 9178 Ch02 7870 Ch02 3401 Ch02 17573 Ch03 1611 Ch03 4151 Ch03 6007 Ch03 11713 Ch03 18511 Ch04 1491 Ch04 4337 Ch04 7122 Ch04 7719 Ch04 22447 Ch05 5867 Ch05 7354 Ch05 14195 Ch05 15102 Ch05 15708 Ch06 1596 Ch06 3998 Ch06 6654 Ch06 6907 Ch07 301 Ch07 9309 Ch07 16432 Ch07 18297 Ch07 23166 Ch08 121 Ch09 4261 Ch09 7798 Ch10 10655 Ch11 11928 Ch11 21738 Ch12 6918 Ch13 8501 Ch14 13876
VAL: term negatively defined
Cross-level · CGL · 24 hits
A term is given content only by what it is not -- 'not human', 'not alive', 'not really there'. Saussure's central claim, that in language there are only differences without positive terms, is testable here: if this code is dense around the AI lexicon, the lexicon has no positive content to test against reality.
Ch01 3306 Ch01 19059 Ch03 12062 Ch03 13937 Ch04 27462 Ch04 29084 Ch05 6206 Ch06 3998 Ch06 6308 Ch07 19282 Ch07 23166 Ch09 14486 Ch11 5699 Ch14 16537 Ch15 20011 Ch16 13511 Ch17 7871 Ch17 3561 Ch18 5764 Ch18 8287 Ch18 8438 Ch18 8836 Ch22 8645 Ch24 6703
VAL: boundary shift
Level B - langue · CGL · 10 hits
The line between two terms moves, which changes the value of both. Distinct from a term simply being applied to a new object; the system must be visibly reorganised.
Ch01 1145 Ch01 28375 Ch03 13027 Ch03 13669 Ch03 13792 Ch05 9741 Ch09 13873 Ch17 2866 Ch21 3773 Ch24 556
VAL: term evacuated
Level B - langue · CGL · 8 hits
A term loses its differential purchase and stops distinguishing anything -- 'dead' once a ROM construct answers back, 'body' once the matrix is habitable.
Ch07 19937 Ch08 8558 Ch10 1844 Ch11 14596 Ch20 8928 Ch20 9713 Ch23 12913 Ch24 4892
VAL: system-level term
Level B - langue · CGL · 18 hits
A term whose meaning depends on the whole field rather than on any single opposition: matrix, cyberspace, ICE, the Sprawl. These are the anchors against which the smaller oppositions take their value.
Ch04 489 Ch05 3158 Ch08 10023 Ch14 14239 Ch14 15136 Ch14 16284 Ch17 10308 Ch17 3825 Ch18 12254 Ch19 7815 Ch20 17812 Ch21 5213 Ch23 7943 Ch23 10900 Ch24 4481 Ch24 4652 Ch24 5062 Ch24 5136
OPP — The governing oppositions
OPP: meat / data
Level B - langue · CGL · 23 hits
The body-as-meat against existence as information. Gibson's signature pair, and the one that licenses every other transfer in the novel.
Ch01 3306 Ch01 4652 Ch01 5822 Ch01 13848 Ch01 28375 Ch02 7870 Ch02 20589 Ch03 6007 Ch03 18511 Ch04 283 Ch05 12727 Ch08 121 Ch09 7798 Ch11 19747 Ch11 21738 Ch12 3178 Ch12 6918 Ch13 8767 Ch17 4642 Ch20 17812 Ch20 18212 Ch21 412 Ch23 12913
OPP: human / machine
Level B - langue · CGL · 42 hits
The governing pair for the dissertation. Code the pair, then use AXIS: predicate assignment to record which side a given mental predicate lands on.
Ch01 254 Ch01 1282 Ch01 15665 Ch01 16542 Ch01 19059 Ch01 38985 Ch01 45552 Ch02 2581 Ch02 4539 Ch02 6703 Ch02 8792 Ch02 9178 Ch02 3401 Ch02 17573 Ch03 1611 Ch03 4151 Ch03 11713 Ch03 12062 Ch04 4337 Ch04 7719 Ch04 22447 Ch05 6206 Ch06 3998 Ch06 6654 Ch07 301 Ch07 7039 Ch07 19937 Ch07 23166 Ch09 7798 Ch10 10655 Ch11 11928 Ch11 11416 Ch11 18335 Ch12 6918 Ch13 7639 Ch17 3561 Ch18 11942 Ch18 12254 Ch22 8645 Ch24 556 Ch24 5062 Ch24 5136
OPP: living / dead
Level B - langue · CGL · 20 hits
Mortality as a distinction, and the pressure the ROM construct puts on it.
Ch03 13027 Ch03 13185 Ch03 13669 Ch03 13792 Ch05 9741 Ch05 14195 Ch08 8106 Ch09 15132 Ch13 8362 Ch14 16790 Ch17 10943 Ch17 3825 Ch18 8287 Ch19 5113 Ch20 8970 Ch20 9713 Ch21 5213 Ch23 8356 Ch23 8855 Ch24 6703
OPP: person / construct
Level B - langue · CGL · 46 hits
Personhood against engineered replica. The Dixie Flatline thread runs almost entirely on this pair.
Ch01 45318 Ch03 13257 Ch03 14553 Ch05 7354 Ch05 11228 Ch05 15102 Ch05 15864 Ch05 15708 Ch06 4836 Ch06 6907 Ch07 15832 Ch07 16432 Ch07 19282 Ch08 8715 Ch09 4700 Ch09 11488 Ch10 4310 Ch10 4712 Ch11 5699 Ch11 18335 Ch11 21642 Ch13 6159 Ch13 8501 Ch13 8362 Ch15 13179 Ch15 20876 Ch16 1119 Ch16 1151 Ch16 7908 Ch16 12197 Ch17 57 Ch17 7871 Ch17 10838 Ch17 10943 Ch17 2866 Ch18 15854 Ch19 2835 Ch19 10157 Ch20 13943 Ch21 3773 Ch22 57 Ch22 4044 Ch22 8936 Ch23 8855 Ch24 5874 Ch24 6624
OPP: real / simulated
Level B - langue · CGL · 51 hits
Authentic against generated, including simstim, the beach, and Linda Lee.
Ch01 10036 Ch01 38985 Ch03 4151 Ch03 13393 Ch03 16829 Ch04 489 Ch04 17527 Ch06 4836 Ch06 6654 Ch07 7039 Ch07 11583 Ch07 18297 Ch07 23166 Ch08 9213 Ch08 16578 Ch08 16481 Ch09 4261 Ch09 11332 Ch10 9993 Ch11 6733 Ch11 8464 Ch11 21738 Ch12 8536 Ch14 8747 Ch15 11527 Ch15 22269 Ch16 12197 Ch16 13511 Ch17 2866 Ch17 14466 Ch18 5557 Ch18 5586 Ch18 5764 Ch19 4628 Ch19 4875 Ch19 10157 Ch19 10662 Ch20 6196 Ch20 8928 Ch20 8970 Ch20 9713 Ch20 18212 Ch21 3773 Ch21 4164 Ch21 5278 Ch22 4044 Ch22 7238 Ch22 7767 Ch23 6336 Ch23 6858 Ch24 6624
OPP: personality / consciousness
Level B - langue · CGL · 42 hits
Behavioural surface against inner life -- the distinction Dixie himself draws when he says he is a recording rather than someone. The pair most directly transferable to present-day language-model discourse.
Ch01 11574 Ch03 15256 Ch04 2851 Ch04 8171 Ch07 18297 Ch08 8209 Ch09 14486 Ch10 4310 Ch10 4712 Ch10 17159 Ch10 17215 Ch10 17268 Ch10 19236 Ch11 14739 Ch11 21642 Ch12 9266 Ch14 10367 Ch15 20011 Ch17 7871 Ch17 8018 Ch17 9914 Ch17 14466 Ch18 5764 Ch18 8438 Ch18 8836 Ch18 11942 Ch18 12913 Ch19 5113 Ch19 7815 Ch19 8752 Ch20 10552 Ch21 5278 Ch22 7238 Ch22 8645 Ch22 9371 Ch23 5546 Ch23 6336 Ch23 6858 Ch23 7345 Ch23 12913 Ch24 3314 Ch24 4736
OPP: free / bound
Level B - langue · CGL · 12 hits
Autonomy against constraint: the Turing locks, the hardwired shackles, and the AI's own account of what it is prevented from doing.
Ch05 2926 Ch05 3666 Ch07 16497 Ch08 17671 Ch10 17734 Ch10 18663 Ch13 1352 Ch13 7764 Ch17 9914 Ch18 8836 Ch19 10662 Ch21 7044
OPP: whole / split
Level B - langue · CGL · 9 hits
Unity against division, carried chiefly by the Wintermute-Neuromancer pair and resolved only in the Coda.
Ch09 13328 Ch14 15461 Ch14 16537 Ch17 9080 Ch17 10308 Ch19 8709 Ch24 2041 Ch24 4481 Ch24 4652
OPP: inside / outside
Level B - langue · CGL · 5 hits
Jacked in against jacked out; the matrix against the meat world.
OPP: natural / artificial
Level B - langue · CGL · 23 hits
The made against the born, including Tessier-Ashpool's cloned heirs, which sit awkwardly on both sides.
Ch04 7122 Ch04 7719 Ch05 5867 Ch05 6206 Ch05 7354 Ch06 2980 Ch07 9309 Ch08 121 Ch10 1844 Ch10 9993 Ch10 7888 Ch11 1079 Ch11 5699 Ch14 10640 Ch14 13876 Ch15 20876 Ch17 3825 Ch17 4642 Ch18 8438 Ch19 7815 Ch22 8936 Ch22 9371 Ch24 4736
MED — Mediation
MED: mediating term
Level B - langue · EXT · 15 hits
An entity or term that occupies both poles of an opposition at once and thereby keeps the opposition standing rather than collapsing it. Levi-Straussian, and flagged as an extension. Dixie is the structural mediator of living / dead and of person / construct simultaneously.
Ch03 13669 Ch04 1491 Ch05 11228 Ch05 15864 Ch06 4836 Ch07 15832 Ch08 8715 Ch09 13328 Ch10 17159 Ch11 18335 Ch11 21642 Ch18 8287 Ch21 5213 Ch23 7943 Ch24 6703
MED: opposition collapsed
Level B - langue · EXT · 13 hits
The pair stops distinguishing and the terms become interchangeable in use.
Ch10 1844 Ch16 7908 Ch17 4642 Ch19 7815 Ch20 8928 Ch20 17812 Ch20 18212 Ch22 7767 Ch23 6336 Ch23 12913 Ch24 4652 Ch24 4892 Ch24 6624
MED: opposition restored
Level B - langue · EXT · dark
Repair work reinstates a pair that had collapsed, usually by a character asserting the distinction verbally.
MED: third term introduced
Level B - langue · EXT · 2 hits
A term that neither pole covers and that is not simply a blend -- the novel's answer to a question its own lexicon cannot pose.
AXIS — Syntagmatic and associative axes
AXIS: syntagmatic chain
Cross-level · CGL · 3 hits
The in-praesentia combination: what the AI is placed next to, and what grammatical role the combination assigns it. Code the chain, and quote enough of it that the role is legible.
AXIS: paradigmatic substitution
Cross-level · CGL · 14 hits
One term is exchanged for another in the same slot -- the in-absentia relation made visible by the swap. The associative relation in Saussure's own terms.
Ch07 15541 Ch08 10023 Ch08 16157 Ch11 14596 Ch14 12143 Ch15 20469 Ch16 485 Ch16 7908 Ch19 4628 Ch22 1796 Ch22 8936 Ch22 7009 Ch23 10900 Ch24 4481
AXIS: substitution refused
Level A - parole · CGL · 6 hits
A speaker explicitly rejects a substitution: not 'he', 'it'; not 'someone', 'something'. Refusal is stronger evidence of the paradigm's shape than acceptance, because it makes the alternative explicit.
Ch04 29084 Ch08 16578 Ch15 13179 Ch16 1151 Ch19 4875 Ch21 4758
AXIS: predicate assignment
Cross-level · CGL · 71 hits
A mental or volitional predicate -- wants, knows, intends, feels, decides -- is grammatically attached to a machine subject. The single highest-yield code in the instrument: it converts the attribution question into a countable syntactic fact rather than an interpretive judgement.
Ch01 13848 Ch01 16542 Ch02 5698 Ch02 5839 Ch02 6603 Ch04 22447 Ch07 11583 Ch07 15541 Ch07 15832 Ch07 16497 Ch07 16432 Ch07 23127 Ch08 8106 Ch08 8209 Ch08 8715 Ch08 16578 Ch09 4700 Ch09 11332 Ch09 13873 Ch09 14486 Ch10 4712 Ch10 17215 Ch10 17268 Ch10 19236 Ch11 14739 Ch12 8536 Ch13 6159 Ch13 7764 Ch14 16790 Ch15 20011 Ch15 22633 Ch16 485 Ch16 12197 Ch16 19580 Ch16 22178 Ch17 8018 Ch17 9914 Ch17 10308 Ch17 10943 Ch17 3561 Ch18 8287 Ch18 11942 Ch18 12913 Ch19 2835 Ch19 5113 Ch19 8752 Ch19 10028 Ch19 10157 Ch19 10662 Ch20 8970 Ch20 10552 Ch20 13943 Ch21 3773 Ch21 4164 Ch21 4227 Ch21 5278 Ch22 57 Ch22 7238 Ch22 8645 Ch22 9371 Ch22 7009 Ch23 3629 Ch23 5546 Ch23 6336 Ch23 7345 Ch23 8356 Ch23 8855 Ch23 11792 Ch24 4736 Ch24 5136 Ch24 5874
AXIS: pronoun selection
Level A - parole · CGL · 56 hits
Which pronoun a speaker selects for an artificial entity, and any change in that selection. Record the pronoun and the speaker in the quotation comment so the series can be read as a trajectory across the document groups.
Ch02 5698 Ch02 5839 Ch03 13257 Ch03 13669 Ch03 14553 Ch03 19328 Ch04 4337 Ch05 3666 Ch05 15864 Ch05 15708 Ch08 8558 Ch08 8715 Ch09 11488 Ch09 12339 Ch09 12705 Ch10 17215 Ch11 11416 Ch13 7764 Ch14 11005 Ch15 13179 Ch15 11527 Ch15 22633 Ch16 485 Ch16 1119 Ch16 1151 Ch16 19580 Ch16 22178 Ch17 7871 Ch17 9080 Ch17 10838 Ch17 14466 Ch18 5557 Ch18 5586 Ch18 5986 Ch18 11942 Ch18 19742 Ch19 4628 Ch19 8709 Ch19 8752 Ch20 9360 Ch20 10552 Ch20 10618 Ch20 9713 Ch20 13943 Ch21 4164 Ch21 4227 Ch21 6193 Ch21 7044 Ch22 57 Ch22 7238 Ch22 8936 Ch23 3629 Ch23 8855 Ch23 11792 Ch24 3314 Ch24 5874
AXIS: predicate assignment - communication
Cross-level · CGL · 22 hits
A verb of COMMUNICATION -- says, tells, reports, warns, answers -- takes a non-human subject. Created 19 Aug 2026 by ruling R1. Kept strictly separate from AXIS: predicate assignment, which now means cognition, volition, perception, intention, or affect only. The two are mutually exclusive: never apply both to one quotation. The separation exists so the pre-naming and post-naming counts can be reported twice, once on the conservative cognition-only figure and once on the inclusive figure, without either being a reconstruction.
Ch02 3204 Ch03 14015 Ch04 4619 Ch05 5867 Ch05 7354 Ch07 301 Ch08 16256 Ch11 11928 Ch11 11416 Ch12 3178 Ch14 13876 Ch17 57 Ch17 9080 Ch18 5586 Ch18 15854 Ch18 19742 Ch19 2748 Ch19 8709 Ch21 7044 Ch22 1796 Ch24 2041 Ch24 5062
LNG — Langue and parole
LNG: parole (individual act)
Level A - parole · CGL · 33 hits
A single speaker's concrete utterance, coded as an instance of -- or a deviation from -- the shared code. The dissertation's Level A.
Ch01 254 Ch01 45318 Ch01 45552 Ch02 2581 Ch02 3275 Ch02 3204 Ch02 6603 Ch02 8792 Ch02 9178 Ch02 17573 Ch03 13792 Ch03 13937 Ch03 19328 Ch03 19722 Ch04 4619 Ch04 8171 Ch04 27462 Ch04 29030 Ch05 2814 Ch07 23127 Ch10 1844 Ch11 1079 Ch15 22633 Ch16 22178 Ch17 9080 Ch18 5586 Ch19 4875 Ch20 10552 Ch20 13943 Ch20 5244 Ch21 2996 Ch23 10900 Ch24 556
LNG: idiolect
Level A - parole · CGL · 12 hits
A character's private and recognisable usage, marked as theirs rather than as common property. Dixie's laugh, Case's slang, the Finn's register.
Ch05 12727 Ch08 9213 Ch08 16157 Ch08 16256 Ch13 8767 Ch16 7541 Ch18 5557 Ch18 5986 Ch18 19742 Ch21 7044 Ch22 1796 Ch22 6147
LNG: institutional codification
Level B - langue · CGL · 23 hits
An institution fixes usage and enforces it -- the Turing Registry above all, but also corporate and legal naming. The Turing police are the novel's explicit apparatus for policing what may be said about machine minds, and this code is what makes that visible as a structural fact rather than a plot device.
Ch01 15665 Ch03 16829 Ch05 3158 Ch05 2926 Ch05 9741 Ch06 6654 Ch07 16497 Ch08 17671 Ch10 17734 Ch10 18663 Ch12 10537 Ch13 1352 Ch13 6159 Ch13 8501 Ch13 8362 Ch14 14239 Ch15 20011 Ch15 20876 Ch19 8392 Ch19 10028 Ch21 4227 Ch21 4513 Ch21 4758
LNG: usage sanctioned
Level B - langue · CGL · 1 hit
The community ratifies a usage; the speaker is understood without repair.
LNG: usage violated
Level B - langue · CGL · 8 hits
A usage breaches the code and draws correction, ridicule, or alarm. Where the code is invisible, its violation is the only way to see it.
Ch08 16578 Ch09 13873 Ch14 10367 Ch14 12143 Ch15 13179 Ch21 4164 Ch22 6147 Ch23 3629
SYN — Synchrony and diachrony
SYN: state marker
Level B - langue · CGL · 6 hits
A passage that fixes the state of the lexicon at that point in the narrative -- a snapshot against which a later state can be compared. Saussure permits comparing successive synchronic states; he does not permit narrating the passage between them, and this code is the device that keeps the analysis on the permitted side of that line.
SYN: immutability
Level B - langue · CGL · dark
The sign resists change despite pressure on it: collective inertia holds the term in place even as the object it names changes.
SYN: mutability
Level B - langue · CGL · 2 hits
The term shifts under collective use across the corpus. Evidenced by comparing state markers, not by asserting a process.
SYN: anachronism
Level B - langue · CGL · dark
A term carried over from an earlier state of the system that no longer fits its object -- 'dead', 'person', 'body' used out of a lexicon the narrative has already superseded.
SYN: state comparison
Level B - langue · CGL · 2 hits
An explicit juxtaposition of two states of the lexicon within one passage, usually by a character noticing that a word used to mean something else.
CONN — Connotation and register
CONN: denotative
Cross-level · EXT · dark
First-order signification only; the sign means what it says. Coded chiefly as the contrast class for the codes below.
CONN: connotative
Cross-level · EXT · 7 hits
The sign carries a second-order signified beyond its literal content. Barthesian, and marked as an extension because Saussure's own model stops at the first order.
Ch10 7888 Ch10 18663 Ch14 14239 Ch14 15136 Ch17 4642 Ch20 17812 Ch21 412
CONN: myth
Level B - langue · EXT · 9 hits
A second-order signification that naturalises an ideological proposition, presenting a historical arrangement as simply how things are. The code that carries the most argumentative weight, and the one most easily over-applied; require that the naturalising move be demonstrable.
Ch05 14195 Ch08 16481 Ch13 7639 Ch14 12143 Ch15 20469 Ch16 7541 Ch17 3825 Ch18 8438 Ch21 4513
CONN: register - theological
Level B - langue · EXT · 14 hits
The AI figured through divinity, transcendence, or the loa. Dense in Part Four and the Coda.
Ch05 14195 Ch08 10023 Ch08 16256 Ch08 17671 Ch13 7639 Ch14 16537 Ch15 20469 Ch16 7541 Ch18 5986 Ch18 19742 Ch20 9360 Ch20 5244 Ch22 1796 Ch23 13265
CONN: register - necromantic
Level B - langue · EXT · 8 hits
The AI figured through death, resurrection, and the preserved dead. The title character's name is itself the index of this register.
Ch05 14195 Ch16 7908 Ch19 8392 Ch19 10028 Ch21 4513 Ch21 4791 Ch21 5278 Ch22 7009
CONN: register - proprietary
Level B - langue · EXT · 8 hits
The AI figured through ownership, inheritance, and corporate personhood -- Tessier-Ashpool as a family that is also an asset.
Ch05 2926 Ch07 16432 Ch10 10655 Ch10 17734 Ch13 8501 Ch14 15461 Ch18 12913 Ch19 7815
SQ — The semiotic square
SQ: S1
Level B - langue · EXT · dark
The first contrary term of a square under construction. Greimassian and wholly an extension; use only when building a square for a named opposition, and record which opposition in the quotation comment.
SQ: S2
Level B - langue · EXT · dark
The second contrary term, opposed to S1 on the axis being squared. Contrary and not contradictory: S1 and S2 may both be false at once, and it is that possibility which leaves the neutral position open.
SQ: not-S1
Level B - langue · EXT · dark
The contradictory of S1 -- not the opposite but the negation.
SQ: not-S2
Level B - langue · EXT · dark
The contradictory of S2. With not-S1 it forms the lower axis of the square, which is generally where a corpus's evasions live: the things it can deny without having to assert the opposite.
SQ: complex term
Level B - langue · EXT · dark
S1 and S2 held together in one entity. Expected to catch Dixie and the merged AI of the Coda.
SQ: neutral term
Level B - langue · EXT · dark
Neither S1 nor S2 -- the position the lexicon leaves empty. What a square leaves unoccupied is usually the more interesting result.
CAL — Calibration metalayer
CAL: no code fits
Calibration metalayer · CGL · 1 hit
A passage plainly relevant to the research question that no code in this instrument accommodates. Name the code you would have wanted in the margin.
CAL: overlap
Calibration metalayer · CGL · 12 hits
Two or more codes compete for the same passage and the definitions do not separate them. Name the competing pair.
Ch01 13848 Ch01 16542 Ch02 3204 Ch03 11713 Ch03 14015 Ch04 4337 Ch04 17527 Ch04 29030 Ch06 6308 Ch07 11583 Ch08 8209 Ch12 3178
CAL: rich exemplar
Calibration metalayer · CGL · 182 hits
A passage worth quoting in the dissertation itself, independent of which codes it carries.
Ch01 53 Ch01 254 Ch01 1145 Ch01 4652 Ch01 5822 Ch01 13848 Ch01 16542 Ch01 28375 Ch01 45552 Ch02 2452 Ch02 3275 Ch02 3204 Ch02 4539 Ch02 5698 Ch02 6603 Ch02 6703 Ch02 20589 Ch03 66 Ch03 1611 Ch03 4151 Ch03 11713 Ch03 12062 Ch03 13027 Ch03 13057 Ch03 13393 Ch03 13669 Ch03 13792 Ch03 15256 Ch03 16829 Ch03 18511 Ch03 13937 Ch03 14015 Ch03 19328 Ch04 283 Ch04 1491 Ch04 2851 Ch04 4337 Ch04 4619 Ch04 7122 Ch04 8171 Ch04 22447 Ch04 27462 Ch04 29030 Ch04 29084 Ch05 541 Ch05 2814 Ch05 3158 Ch05 2926 Ch05 5867 Ch05 7354 Ch05 9741 Ch05 14195 Ch05 11228 Ch05 15102 Ch05 15864 Ch05 15708 Ch06 1596 Ch06 4836 Ch07 301 Ch07 7039 Ch07 11583 Ch07 15541 Ch07 15832 Ch07 16497 Ch07 18297 Ch07 19282 Ch07 19937 Ch07 23127 Ch07 23335 Ch08 8106 Ch08 8209 Ch08 8558 Ch08 8715 Ch08 9213 Ch08 10023 Ch08 16157 Ch08 16256 Ch08 16578 Ch09 4700 Ch09 11332 Ch09 11488 Ch09 12339 Ch09 12509 Ch09 12705 Ch09 13328 Ch09 13873 Ch09 14486 Ch09 15132 Ch10 1844 Ch10 4310 Ch10 9993 Ch10 7888 Ch10 17159 Ch10 17215 Ch10 17268 Ch10 17734 Ch10 18663 Ch10 19236 Ch11 5699 Ch11 6733 Ch11 11928 Ch11 14596 Ch11 14739 Ch11 18335 Ch11 21642 Ch11 21738 Ch12 3178 Ch12 8536 Ch12 10537 Ch13 1352 Ch13 6159 Ch13 7639 Ch13 7764 Ch13 8362 Ch14 8747 Ch14 10367 Ch14 10640 Ch14 11005 Ch14 12143 Ch14 13876 Ch14 14239 Ch14 15136 Ch14 16284 Ch14 16537 Ch14 16790 Ch15 13179 Ch15 20469 Ch15 22269 Ch16 485 Ch16 1119 Ch16 1151 Ch16 7908 Ch16 12197 Ch16 13511 Ch16 19580 Ch16 22178 Ch17 7871 Ch17 9914 Ch17 10838 Ch17 10943 Ch17 3561 Ch17 14466 Ch18 5764 Ch18 8438 Ch18 11942 Ch18 12254 Ch19 2835 Ch19 4628 Ch19 5113 Ch19 7815 Ch19 8392 Ch20 1966 Ch20 6196 Ch20 8928 Ch20 9360 Ch20 10618 Ch20 9713 Ch20 18212 Ch21 2996 Ch21 3773 Ch21 4513 Ch21 4758 Ch21 4791 Ch21 5213 Ch21 5278 Ch22 57 Ch22 4044 Ch22 7238 Ch22 7767 Ch23 3629 Ch23 5546 Ch23 6336 Ch23 6858 Ch23 11792 Ch23 13265 Ch24 3314 Ch24 4481 Ch24 4892 Ch24 5062 Ch24 5874 Ch24 6624 Ch24 6703
CAL: proxy mismatch
Calibration metalayer · CGL · dark
The passage exposes a limit of using a 1984 novel as a proxy for present-day attribution: the diegesis settles by fiat something a real observer would have to reason toward.
CAL: dyad strain
Calibration metalayer · CGL · 9 hits
The passage cannot be held by a two-part sign, because what is actually at issue is the effect the sign produces in an interpreter. The direct measurement of where Saussure needs Peirce, and the reason this project is worth running as a separate instrument rather than as a second reading. Every hit is a candidate for the comparison chapter.
Ch03 13057 Ch05 11228 Ch05 15102 Ch08 8558 Ch09 12705 Ch10 17268 Ch11 21738 Ch14 8747 Ch15 22269
CAL: synchronic strain
Calibration metalayer · CGL · 1 hit
The passage's sense depends on narrative time in a way no synchronic cut can capture. The companion to the above, and the honest accounting of what a state-based instrument gives up.
XREF — Cross-instrument
XREF: convergent reading
Calibration metalayer · CGL · 8 hits
The Saussurean reading of this passage agrees in substance with the Peircean one recorded in Neuromancer Peircean v1.
Ch03 1611 Ch03 4151 Ch03 13027 Ch03 13669 Ch03 13792 Ch03 14553 Ch03 16829 Ch16 485
XREF: divergent reading
Calibration metalayer · CGL · dark
The two instruments disagree about what this passage shows. The most valuable class of hit in the entire project; write it up in the memo the same day it is coded.
XREF: orthogonal reading
Cross-level · EXT · 2 hits
The two instruments address different objects in the same passage and therefore neither agree nor disagree -- typically the Peircean reading describes how the sign works while the Saussurean reading describes what lexicon it belongs to. Created 19 Aug 2026 after the Chapter Three sweep.