This section summarises the working methodology of the CLWG; this methodology is conditioned by both general and specific constraints related with the standardisation-by-consensus approach.
Recall the phases of the work and their output. For convenience, we here summarise these in table 3. The documents cited are from the subgroup on morphosyntax. The syntax group managed to condense its output into one major report, which, in its internal structure, reflects the relevant phases as well.
. The maintenance work
is not really a phase of the
standards development cycle, but is a very important element of
the life cycle of standardisation proposals as such. It is an
ongoing task relevant beyond the phase described here.
The phases build one on the other, and they implement a stepwise process (from smaller to larger, from dispersed to concentrated, from consensual to tested, from informal to formally represented and implemented (runnable specifications) proposals). This can be symbolised as in figure 1, below.
Figure 1: Steps towards proposals for standards for lexical description
This working methodology has proven applicable in the fields of morphosyntax and syntactic subcategorisation. It may be tried as well in other tasks addressed with the same objective.