Result-types — the specimen-resolution taxonomy

Surfaced 2026-05-28 in and progressively sharpened across the 2026-06-05 wound graduation and the Hunchback-as-scaffold finding. Consolidated here 2026-06-05 because the typology had accumulated as inline backlog updates without a stable reference doc — and "the (ii)/(iv) split-result" started appearing in load-bearing dossiers (Lolita, Notre-Dame) without a single canonical definition.

Why this doc exists

Glossary section 2 names the engine-resolution outcomes: when a candidate engine is slot-tested at the framework level, it resolves to one of {confirmed, candidate, composite, solvent, vehicle}. That layer is well-documented and well-disciplined.

A second layer of outcomes — specimen-resolution — has been accumulating without a stable name: what happens when a specific work is slot-tested against the confirmed engine set. The catalog has been calling these "result-types (i)/(ii)/(iii)/(iv)" inline, plus compound categories ("split-result," "scaffold") that don't fit any single result-type. This doc consolidates the specimen-resolution taxonomy.

The distinction:

Engine-resolution answers: does this proposed engine deserve a slot in the catalog? (Resolves a candidate engine.)
Specimen-resolution answers: what does this specific work do when slot-tested against the catalog? (Resolves a specimen.)

The four primary specimen-resolution result-types

A specimen slot-tested against the catalog's confirmed engines resolves to one of:

(i) Engine present, run dark, still delivered

The work runs a confirmed engine substantively — slots fill at verbatim discipline — but at the engine's dark / withheld pole where the payoff is delivered as cost or absence rather than as triumph. The reader receives the engine's payout, but in an inverted register: liberation as the door-slam that ends the marriage rather than as the savored freedom-act; redemption as the unforgiven debt acknowledged rather than as the slate-wiped-clean.

Canonical example. Never Let Me Go (Ishiguro) — liberation/autonomy spine "run as its dark, withheld pole" per Never Let Me Go. The engine fires; the payout is the constraint's permanence rather than its lifting.

Slot-test verdict. The engine is tagged; the work appears in the catalog under that engine's filter. The dark register is documented in the prose.

(ii) Engine-shape present in a character, run to expose

The work runs an engine-shape in the protagonist — slots fill — but the work's structural commitment is to make the reader recoil from rather than gratify the engine. The character runs the engine; the reader receives implication / critique rather than the engine's payout.

Canonical examples.

Lolita (Nabokov, pre-wound-graduation reading): unleashing-shape present in Humbert; the book exists to make the reader recoil from it. Reader-engine is not unleashing.
Catcher in the Rye (pre-wound-graduation reading): the authenticity-ache present in Holden; the book historical-resister-verdict held that the reader receives no clean payout.

Slot-test verdict. The work is not tagged at the apparent engine — tagging would re-make the cupel category error (the engine is the wish the reader receives, not the character's goal). The work is documented as a (ii) result-type, often with the reader-engine layer separately discussed.

Post-wound-graduation, several (ii) cases retag. Catcher and Lolita both retag to wound at the character-engine layer because the wound's gratify-by-refusing-to-give axis NAMES what those works are running. See result-type (iv) below.

(iii) No engine-shape isolates at all

The work runs no clean engine-shape in either bearer or reader. The slot-test fails to fill at any catalog engine; the work resists the catalog. This is the "true resister" verdict.

Canonical example (historical, now disputed). Catcher in the Rye — the original verdict was (iii) because the framework lacked a wound to name what Catcher was running. Post-2026-06-05 wound graduation, Catcher retags from (iii) to wound spine.

Slot-test verdict. The work appears in the catalog as a resister; no engine filter surfaces it.

The (iii) bucket has been pruned by the wound graduation. Several historical (iii) verdicts (Catcher; possibly Lolita) have retagged to wound. The new bar for any future (iii) verdict: rule out wound before declaring "no engine at all" — any "canon-status protagonist whose payoff seems to be wound-preservation rather than wish-fulfillment" should slot-test against wound first.

(iv) Engine of a different kind the catalog wasn't reading

The slot-test fails at every confirmed engine, but the failure is diagnostic of a missing engine: the work is running an engine on an axis the catalog hadn't previously named. The (iv) result-type produces an engine-candidate at the engine-resolution layer.

Canonical example. Wound itself, surfaced 2026-06-05 via Notes from the Underground (Notes from the Underground) + Catcher + A Little Life. Pre-2026-06-05, these three works were sitting in (ii) or (iii) buckets. Post-2026-06-05, they retag to wound spine because the catalog now has a name for the gratify-by-refusing-to-give axis they were running.

Slot-test verdict. The work is documented as a candidate-engine surfacing case. If the engine candidate clears the engine-resolution gate (Glossary section 2), the specimens retag to (iv) → confirmed-engine spine. If the engine candidate fails, the specimens fall back to (iii) or (ii) depending on the falsification mode.

Compound result-categories

Some specimens don't fit a single primary result-type because they run different result-types at different layers.

Split-result

The character-engine layer fills cleanly at a confirmed engine; the reader-engine layer remains a resister OR runs a consumption-counterfeit at a different engine. The work is dual-use at the engine-layer dimension.

Canonical example. Lolita — character-engine layer fires wound substantively in Humbert (result-type (iv)/wound-spine); reader-engine layer runs the wound class's dual-use signature — skilled-reader-mode pays implication-via-seduction; prurient-reader-mode runs unleashing-counterfeit at consumption-layer.

Slot-test verdict. Split-result specimens are tagged at the character-engine spine in the index; the reader-engine dual-use signature is documented in the dossier and (when load-bearing) in Dual-use log.

Scaffold

The work distributes engine-bundle elements across multiple bearers rather than co-locating them in one bearer the way other specimens do. The bundle is not a unitary cluster but a recurring structural element-set that hosts different engines in different works.

Canonical example. Notre-Dame de Paris (Hugo, Notre-Dame de Paris) — the masked-vigilante trope-bundle (masked-disfigured + foundational-wound + underground-refuge + Pygmalion-protégée + terminal-death-with-idea-propagation) distributes across three bearers: Quasimodo gets masked-disfigured + underground-refuge; Frollo gets foundational-wound + obsessive-preservation; Hugo-as-author gets the idea-propagation thesis. V tightens the same scaffold into one bearer running apotheosis; Phantom tightens it into one bearer running being-desired. Hugo distributes it. The scaffold is the recurring shape; the engines that fill it vary.

Slot-test verdict. Scaffold specimens are tagged at every engine that fires substantively in their respective bearer. A 4th positive specimen extends the scaffold's reach rather than promoting it to cluster.

How specimens move between result-types

The result-type a specimen receives is a function of the catalog's current state at the time of slot-test. As the catalog adds confirmed engines or names new structural categories, historical result-types can retag.

Retag events the typology supports:

Catcher in the Rye: (iii) "no engine at all" → wound spine, once wound graduates.
Lolita: (iii)/("(ii) candidate") → split-result at character-engine wound-spine + reader-engine dual-use signature.
Notre-Dame de Paris: previously absent → scaffold result-category at multi-bearer wound + being-desired + apotheosis.

The discipline for retag events: when a new engine graduates or a new structural category is named, retroactively sweep prior (iii) and (ii) cases for retag candidates. The (iii) bucket should be regarded as provisional — every (iii) verdict is a hypothesis about the catalog's coverage, not a final claim about the work.

How to choose a result-type during a slot-test

The result-type drops out of the slot-test process; you don't choose it directly. The decision tree:

Run the slot-test against every confirmed engine. Does any engine fill all three slots at verbatim discipline, with the wish-valence guard cleared?

Yes, at the engine's standard pole → (i)-class if the dark-pole register is doing real work; otherwise just a clean tag.
No → continue.

Does an engine fill the slots but the work makes the reader recoil from rather than receive the engine's payoff?

Yes → (ii). Document the reader-engine layer separately.

Does the work resist every confirmed engine?

Continue — distinguish (iii) from (iv).

Is the failure pattern diagnostic of a missing engine? Does the work share structural features with other (iii) cases that suggest a named axis the catalog hasn't carried?

Yes → (iv) candidate-engine-surfacing case. Open a candidate-engine probe (engine-resolution layer).
No → (iii) true resister.

Does the work split between character-engine and reader-engine layers?

Yes → split-result. Document both layers.

Does the work distribute bundle elements across multiple bearers rather than co-locating them in one bearer?

Yes → scaffold. Tag every bearer's engine; name the scaffold in the relevant theory doc.

Open questions

Are (i)/(ii)/(iii)/(iv) genuinely four result-types, or three? The (ii)/(iii) distinction relies on raters reliably separating "engine inverted to indict" from "no engine at all" —. The wound graduation pruned some (iii) cases into (iv), which may also be pruning some (ii)/(iii) ambiguity. Test before settling: blind-tag a canon set; force the rater to pick (i)/(ii)/(iii)/(iv) on every "no clean engine for the reader" verdict.
Is split-result a separate category or a (ii)/(iv)-layer composition? The Lolita case suggests it's (iv)-at-character-layer + (ii)-at-reader-layer running simultaneously. If that decomposition holds for every split-result specimen, the category may be a notational shorthand rather than a primitive.
Is scaffold related to cluster? A cluster is a stable engine-bundle that runs together across specimens (e.g., the cult cluster). A scaffold is a recurring structural element-set that hosts different engines in different works (e.g., masked-vigilante). The discrimination is at the engine-bundling level — cluster bundles engines, scaffold bundles non-engine elements that engines fill independently. Whether some clusters are actually scaffolds in disguise (or vice versa) is an open back-test.