The 34 Universal Atoms of PaniniFS¶

The PaniniFS semantic engine relies on 34 semantic atoms distributed across 4 ontological categories and 6 layers of abstraction. These atoms form the minimal vocabulary for encoding most human concepts in any natural language.

Naming convention

Atom names (MOUVEMENT, COGNITION, CRÉATION…) are canonical identifiers in UPPERCASE. They are defined in French in the source code (import_panlang_v2.py) and serve as universal, language-independent identifiers. The Python code and Dolt databases use these French names as stable keys. English equivalents are shown in the "Operational meaning" column.

Validation

These 34 atoms have been validated across 14 languages and ~8M words (Gutenberg + Wikipedia). Atom presence coverage: 34/34 = 100% on the 14-language Wikipedia corpus.

Summary table of the 34 atoms¶

Layer 3a — Semantic predicates (9 atoms)¶

Atom	Category	Operational meaning	NSM primes	Sanskrit dhātu
MOUVEMENT	PROCESS	Spatial displacement	MOVE	√gam
COGNITION	PROCESS/QUALITY	Thinking, knowledge	THINK, KNOW	√jñā
PERCEPTION	PROCESS/QUALITY	Seeing, hearing, sensing	SEE, HEAR	√dṛś
COMMUNICATION	PROCESS/RELATION	Saying, transmitting	SAY	√vac
CRÉATION	PROCESS	Making, causing	DO, HAPPEN	√kṛ
EXISTENCE	ENTITY/PROCESS	Being, existing	EXIST, THERE IS	√as
DESTRUCTION	PROCESS	Dying, breaking	DIE	—
POSSESSION	RELATION/PROCESS	Having, obtaining	HAVE	√labh
DOMINATION	MODALITY/RELATION	Wanting, being able to	WANT, CAN	√īś

Layer 3c — Emotional axes (8 atoms)¶

Atom	Category	Operational meaning	NSM primes	Sanskrit dhātu
SEEKING	QUALITY/PROCESS	Seeking, desiring	WANT	√iṣ
FEAR	QUALITY/PROCESS	Fear, dread	FEEL	√bhī
CARE	QUALITY/RELATION	Care, love	FEEL, GOOD	√snuh
GRIEF	QUALITY/PROCESS	Sorrow, sadness	FEEL, BAD	√śuc
RAGE	QUALITY/PROCESS	Anger, fury	FEEL, BAD	√krudh
DISGUST	QUALITY/PROCESS	Disgust, rejection	FEEL, BAD	√jugupsā
PLAY	QUALITY/PROCESS	Play, pleasure	FEEL, GOOD	√krīḍ
TEDIUM	QUALITY/PROCESS	Boredom, weariness	FEEL, BAD	√glai

Layer 4 — Abstract atoms (7 atoms)¶

Atom	Category	Operational meaning	NSM primes	Jackendoff
RELATION	RELATION	Link between entities	LIKE, OF, WITH	—
STRUCTURE	STRUCTURE/RELATION	Organization, hierarchy	PART, KIND	—
INVARIANCE	QUALITY/STRUCTURE	Stability, persistence	SAME	STAY
RÉCURRENCE	PROCESS/STRUCTURE	Repetition, iteration	AGAIN, MORE	—
DUALITÉ	RELATION/MODALITY	Opposition, negation, condition	OTHER, NOT, IF	—
MESURE	QUALITY/RELATION	Quantity, size, degree	BIG, SMALL, MUCH	AMOUNT
ORDRE	RELATION/STRUCTURE	Sequence, before/after	BEFORE, AFTER, ABOVE	—

Layer 5 — Entity atoms (5 atoms)¶

Atom	Category	Operational meaning	NSM primes	Jackendoff
CHOSE	ENTITY	Object, substance	SOMETHING, THING	THING
AGENT	ENTITY/PROCESS	Animate being, person	SOMEONE, PEOPLE, I, YOU	—
CORPS	ENTITY/STRUCTURE	Physical body, body part	BODY	—
LIEU	ENTITY/STRUCTURE	Location, position	WHERE, PLACE, HERE	PLACE
MATIÈRE	ENTITY/QUALITY	Substance, material	PART	—

Layer 6 — Quality atoms (5 atoms)¶

Atom	Category	Operational meaning	NSM primes	Aristotle
BON	QUALITY	Positive value, good	GOOD	ποιότης
GRAND	QUALITY/ENTITY	Size, greatness	BIG	ποιότης
VRAI	QUALITY/MODALITY	Truth, accuracy	TRUE	ποιότης
INTENSE	QUALITY/PROCESS	Intensity, degree	VERY, MUCH	ποιότης
ANCIEN	QUALITY/PROCESS	Age, duration	BEFORE, A LONG TIME	ποιότης

Distribution by ontological category¶

Category	Sanskrit	Atoms	Count
PROCESS (dominant)	kriyā	MOUVEMENT, COGNITION, COMMUNICATION, CRÉATION, EXISTENCE, DESTRUCTION, POSSESSION, SEEKING, FEAR, CARE, GRIEF, RAGE, DISGUST, PLAY, TEDIUM, RÉCURRENCE	~16
RELATION (dominant)	sambandha	DOMINATION, POSSESSION, RELATION, STRUCTURE, INVARIANCE, ORDRE	~6
QUALITY (dominant)	guṇa	PERCEPTION, COGNITION, BON, GRAND, VRAI, INTENSE, ANCIEN, MESURE	~8
ENTITY (dominant)	dravya	CHOSE, AGENT, CORPS, LIEU, MATIÈRE, EXISTENCE	~6

Note: categories are indicative; many atoms span multiple categories (e.g., COGNITION is 70% PROCESS + 30% QUALITY).

The 7 dhātu informational operators¶

Alongside the 34 analytical atoms, PaniniFS uses 7 dhātu operators for high-level information flow encoding:

Dhātu	Operation	Sub-primitives
COMM	Communicate/share	channel, source, target
ITER	Iterate/repeat	loop, frequency, accumulation
TRANS	Transform	input, operation, output
DECIDE	Choose/regulate	criteria, thresholds, branches
LOCATE	Locate/anchor	position, context, landmarks
GROUP	Group/structure	collection, membership
SEQ	Sequence/order	order, dependencies, timeline

Mapping to the 34 atoms: - COMM ↔ COMMUNICATION, RELATION - ITER ↔ RÉCURRENCE, MESURE - TRANS ↔ CRÉATION, DESTRUCTION, MOUVEMENT - DECIDE ↔ DOMINATION, DUALITÉ - LOCATE ↔ LIEU, ORDRE, RELATION - GROUP ↔ STRUCTURE, RELATION - SEQ ↔ ORDRE, RÉCURRENCE

Theoretical cross-references¶

PaniniFS's 34 atoms are cross-referenced against several semantic systems:

System	References	Correspondence
NSM (Natural Semantic Metalanguage)	Wierzbicka 1972, Goddard 2002	Universal primes: GOOD, BAD, BIG, SMALL, THINK, KNOW, FEEL, SAY, DO, HAPPEN…
Jackendoff	Conceptual Semantics 1990	GO, STAY, BE, CAUSE, LET, INCH, HAVE, AFFECT, THING, PLACE, AMOUNT
Pustejovsky	Generative Lexicon 1995	Qualia: FORMAL, AGENTIVE, TELIC, CONSTITUTIVE
Sanskrit dhātu	Pāṇini Ashtādhyāyī	√gam, √jñā, √dṛś, √vac, √kṛ, √as, √labh, √iṣ, √bhī…

Encoding example¶

Sentence: "The cat hunts the mouse."

Segment	Atom(s)	Category
The cat	AGENT	ENTITY
hunts	MOUVEMENT + DESTRUCTION	PROCESS
the mouse	CHOSE + PATIENT	ENTITY
(habitual)	RÉCURRENCE	ABS

Representation: [AGENT:cat][MOUVEMENT][DESTRUCTION][CHOSE:mouse][RÉCURRENCE]