The Semantic Fidelity Canonical Lexicon: Meaning Preservation Across Recursive AI and Representational Systems

The Semantic Fidelity Canonical Lexicon defines a conceptual framework for understanding semantic degradation across recursive AI and representational systems. The lexicon introduces terminology related to semantic fidelity, representation drift, recursive mediation, semantic entropy, retrieval drift, memory drift, synthetic coherence, recursive compression, provenance systems, and semantic infrastructure. Rather than treating hallucination and drift as isolated model failures, the framework describes semantic degradation as a structural property of recursive systems operating under compression, optimization, abstraction, retrieval, and regeneration. The project establishes conceptual infrastructure for semantic observability, fidelity evaluation, provenance tracking, retrieval alignment, and long-term meaning preservation across AI-native environments. The lexicon organizes these concepts across four interacting layers: Core semantic conditions AI system failure modes Semantic infrastructure and governance Recursive semantic ecosystems This work is intended as a living ontology for recursive semantic systems and future AI-native representational infrastructure.