Add a closed finite-verb relational surface to comprehend_relational, narrowly:
declarative <A> overlaps <B>, interrogative Does <A> overlap <B>?, predicate
overlaps_event ONLY (closed finite-verb table, default-off).
Kept SEPARATE from the copula-connective grammar (byte-unchanged): the other
connectives (before/after/during/inside/adjacent/…) still REQUIRE the copula, so
"Monday before Friday." stays a refusal — no connective bypass (adversarial hazard #2).
Fail-closed slot gate: each finite-verb argument slot must be EXACTLY ONE content
token (after article stripping). An enumerated adverb/negation blocklist is unbounded
and leaks — the adversarial audit found "Meeting never overlaps lunch." committed as a
POSITIVE overlaps_event(meeting_never, lunch), plus almost/sometimes/trailing-qualifier/
second-verb compound fabrications in BOTH slots and the query path. The single-token
gate closes the whole COMPOUND-fabrication class (any extra token refuses); the
_FINITE_VERB_MODIFIERS and _CONNECTIVE_TOKENS checks add precise reasons for common
bare-modifier / second-verb slots. Multi-word entities in the finite-verb surface are
deferred (they need a positive content lexicon, which OOV entities preclude). A lone
bare token remains an entity (the reader's universal OOV single-token contract — the
copula and general readers behave identically), not a compound fabrication.
Hazards pinned (adversarial audit hazard #1 + #2): adverb absorption, negation-as-
positive ('never'), interrogative double-verb, trailing qualifier, and the copula-bypass
firewall.
Measurement: migrated ref-009 "Sunrise overlaps dawn." (the documented coverage gap) to
a positive rel-018 — comprehension_relational_predicate 17->18, wrong_total 0, breadth
still 11 (coverage added, not a new domain), baseline digest re-frozen. Refusal floor
rose 9 -> 24 (finite-verb confusers replace the one migrated input). The #775 inference
and #781 transitive lane SHA pins are UNTOUCHED. determine.py is untouched (reader-only):
no answer=False, no FrameVerdict, INV-30 unaffected.
Verified in the worktree: finite-verb + reader + reader-lane + #775 inference lane +
#781 transitive lane + #779 OWA floor + capability baseline/index + INV-30/29/21 + full
smoke — all green. Two read-only adversarial passes: the first found 4 real slot-
fabrication blockers, closed by the single-token gate; a black-box probe of 24
adversarial inputs confirms the compound-fabrication class is fully closed.
A1 of the refined sequencing — the binary-relation reader was inert w.r.t. the
yardstick (contributing 0). This adds a comprehension_relational_predicate domain:
binary-relation prose scored against hand-authored independent gold (predicate,
subject, object) triples — INV-25 independent / INV-27 reader-disjoint (the reader
never produced the gold). Index breadth 8->9, capability_score 0.937258->0.944030,
wrong_total still 0; baseline.json re-frozen to digest 1ea91c1e.
Rigor split: the index lane is POSITIVE-ONLY (clean coverage, consistent with the
other 8 lanes — mixing adversarial refuse-cases into the coverage denominator would
make 'added capability' read as a score drop). The #596 fabrication-catch lives in a
dedicated falsification test (evals/relational/v1/refusals.jsonl): the trailing-
qualifier / dangling-copula / negation / verb-form cases MUST refuse — bites if the
reader ever fabricates. Honest coverage gap recorded: overlaps_event has no copular
surface form (verb-form 'A overlaps B' refuses), so 17 positives cover 15/16 predicates.
