{
  "id": "unspoken-rule.silence",
  "term": "unspoken rule",
  "sense": "silence",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 15,
  "domain": "group communication",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "a collective self-model that places a hidden wall on the parameter of permissible statements, preventing any statement beyond that wall from ever entering the group's speech window",
  "folk_gloss": "a norm that is never spoken about",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "collective.group",
      "self-model.reflexive",
      "wall.range-end",
      "parameter.condition",
      "window.range",
      "law.rule"
    ],
    "interaction": "the hidden wall keeps statements beyond it outside the group's speech window",
    "novel_properties": [
      "implicit speech limit"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "unspoken rule"
  ],
  "closed": false,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "phrases:openai/gpt-oss-120b",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.7,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — what the group will not say"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-unspoken-rule.silence"
}