The Basis Force Graph is a D3.js force-directed network of the 720-word basis set. Every dot is a word. Every line is a shared Latin root connecting two words. The physics simulation pulls connected words together and pushes unconnected words apart — so the shape you see is not designed. It emerges from the etymological structure of the language itself.
720 = 6! (six factorial) = the number of permutations of the six fundamental positions in a correct sentence: Preposition, Article, Adjective, Noun, Verb (gerund), Adverb. These 720 words form a spanning set — the foundational vocabulary from which all legal and contractual meaning can be constructed or deconstructed.
Larger nodes have more morphemes (prefix + root + suffix). A word like CORPORATION (corp + or + at + ion = 4 morphemes) is larger than MAN (1 morpheme). Complex words carry more hidden structure — more places for meaning to be inverted.
A line connects two words when they share the same Latin/Greek/OE root. CONTRACT and CONTRACTING share the root tract (to pull/draw). CLAIM and CLAIMING share claim. The more connections a word has, the more central it is to the language of law.
Nouns and verbs form a dense core. They share roots extensively — every noun has a gerund partner (claim/claiming, charge/charging, contract/contracting). These shared roots create gravitational bonds in the force simulation, pulling them into a tight cluster at the center.
Adverbs float to the periphery. "Hereby," "forthwith," "notwithstanding," "therein," "whereas," "whereby" — these words share almost no roots with anything else. In the simulation, they have nothing to hold onto. No gravitational bonds. They drift to the edges of the graph.
This is not a design choice. It is the etymological structure of English making itself visible. The force simulation simply reveals what was always true: adverbs are structural isolates. They connect to nothing. In parse-syntax terms, they carry zero facts.
If you look at the graph, three distinct regions emerge:
The dense center. This is where facts live. Every word here either IS a fact (noun) or describes an action happening in now-time (gerund verb). Words in the core are highly interconnected — they share roots, they reference each other, they form the load-bearing structure of language.
Examples: claim, land, man, woman, right, duty, contract, authority, court, charge, bond, trust, deed, title, property
These words modify and connect the core. Prepositions (for, by, of, with, in) ground sentences in now-time. Articles (the, a, an) point to specific nouns. Adjectives (living, lawful, valid, sovereign) describe nouns but don't carry facts themselves. They have moderate connections — some shared roots with the core, but fewer.
The outer ring. These words float alone. Hereby, thereof, therein, forthwith, henceforth, notwithstanding, whereas, whereby, wherein, hereinafter. They share no roots with anything. They modify verbs but cannot anchor meaning. Remove them from a sentence and the sentence loses nothing. Remove the nouns and the sentence collapses.
Click any word and its shared-root connections light up in gold. These are the root constellations — families of words descended from the same Latin root. The biggest constellations in the legal vocabulary:
| Root | Meaning | Connected Words |
|---|---|---|
| tract | to pull / draw | contract, extract, attract, retract, subtract, distract |
| ject | to throw | inject, eject, reject, project, subject, object |
| port | to carry | import, export, transport, deport, report, passport |
| duct | to lead | conduct, deduct, induct, produce, reduce, introduce |
| struct | to build | construct, destruct, instruct, obstruct, structure |
| scribe | to write | describe, prescribe, subscribe, inscribe, transcribe |
| cede | to go / yield | precede, proceed, succeed, exceed, concede, recede |
| press | to push | compress, express, impress, depress, suppress, repress |
| vert | to turn | convert, divert, invert, revert, subvert, avert |
| pose | to place / put | compose, dispose, expose, impose, oppose, propose |
Notice: each constellation contains words with opposite meanings generated by different prefixes on the same root. im-port (carry in) vs ex-port (carry out). com-press (push together) vs de-press (push down). The root stays constant — only the prefix changes the direction. This is the VCC negation pattern operating across the entire vocabulary.
Use the jurisdiction filter (land/sea/air) to see which words belong to which jurisdiction. Sea/water words outnumber land/soil words 2:1 in the basis set. The vocabulary of law is maritime-dominant. You have to actively choose land-jurisdiction words — they don't come naturally from the legal lexicon.
Toggle the "negated" filter to show only VCC-negated words. Notice they cluster in specific areas — the legal/commercial vocabulary. Non-negated words (direct meaning) tend to be simpler, older, Anglo-Saxon words. Negated words tend to be Latinate imports — the language of law and commerce imported from Rome.
A correct sentence has 6 positions. 6! = 720 permutations. The 720 words are not arbitrary — they are the minimum spanning vocabulary needed to construct any correct sentence in the language of law and commerce.
Think of it like a vector space. Each word is a vector with components: morphological (prefix/root/suffix), syntactic (sentence role), jurisdictional (land/sea/air), temporal (now-time or fiction), and negation (VCC-inverted or direct). The 720 words form a basis — any legal document can be projected onto these 720 vectors to reveal its true structure.
The force graph makes this vector space navigable. Instead of a 720-row spreadsheet, you get a living, breathing map where structure is visible at a glance.
| Action | What Happens |
|---|---|
| Click a node | Shows word info (role, jurisdiction, root, complexity, negation). Highlights all shared-root connections in gold. Dims unconnected nodes. |
| Click background | Resets all highlighting |
| Search box | Type to find and highlight specific words |
| Role filters | Show/hide by sentence role (noun, verb, adverb, etc.) |
| Jurisdiction filters | Show/hide by land/sea/air jurisdiction |
| Negation filter | Show only VCC-negated or direct words |
| Drag a node | Move it — the simulation readjusts around it |
| Zoom (scroll) | Zoom in/out of the graph |
| Pan (drag background) | Move the viewport |