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Kovalenko_lexicology

Other semantic relations between words Hyponyms and Hypernyms / Incompatibility / Holonymy and Meronymy / Series / Hierarchies

A hyponym is a word or phrase whose semantic range is included within that of another word. For example, scarlet, vermilion, carmine, and crimson are all hyponyms of red (their hypernym). According to Victoria Fromkin and Robert Rodman's Introduction to Language (Fromkin, 1999), hyponyms are a set of related words whose meanings are specific instances of a more general word (so, for example, red, white, blue, etc., are hyponyms of color). Hyponymy is thus the relationship between a general term such as polygon and specific instances of it, such as triangle.

A word is a hypernym (in Greek υπερνύμιον, literally meaning 'extra name') if its meaning encompasses the meaning of another word of which it is a hypernym; a word that is more generic or broad than another given word. Therefore, another term for a hypernym is a superordinate. For example, vehicle denotes all the things that are separately denoted by the words train, chariot, dogsled, airplane, and automobile and is therefore a hypernym of each of those words. A hypernym and a hyponym are reciprocal notions. For example, plant is hypernymic to flower whereas tulip is hyponymic to flower.

D. Crystal writes: “Hyponymy is particularly important to linguists because it is the core relationship within a dictionary. The most illuminating way of defining a lexeme is to provide a hypernym along with various distinguishing features – an approach to definition whose history can be traced back to Aristotle. For example, a majorette is ‘a girl’ (a hypernym) ‘who twirls a baton and accompanies a marching band’. It is usually possible to trace a hierarchical path through a dictionary, following the hypernyms as they become increasingly abstract, until we arrive at such general notions (essence, being, existence) that clear sense-relations between the lexemes no longer exist. At any point along this path, a lexeme can be seen to have a hyponymic relationship with everything above it, though we usually take seriously only those involving successive levels. So, in answer to the question, ‘What is Gorgonzola?’, the expected answer is ‘a kind of cheese’. If someone does not know exactly what Gorgonzola is, ‘a kind of food’ would be an acceptable first approximation; but to go higher in the hierarchy of abstraction by saying ‘a kind of substance’ of ‘a sort of thing’ would not” (Crystal, 1995, p.166).

There are many lexemes which belong to no hypernym. If we try the formula ‘X is a kind of Y’ on such items as chaos, nightclub, interesting and balloon, we shall be unable to assign any hypernym other than a vague general term, such as state, place or thing. Dictionaries grope for better alternatives, but not always successfully: balloon, for example, is variously described as a bag, ball, pouch and toy. Abstract nouns are especially difficult, in this respect, and verbs and adjectives are more awkward still.

Also, the level of abstraction of a lexeme may be difficult to determinate. Is noise a kind of sound or sound a kind of noise? When the answer is ‘neither’, some other way of analyzing the sense relation must be found, such as by using the notion of synonymy or incompatibility.

Incompatibility is a notion opposite to hyponymy. While hypo-hypernymic relations are about including one meaning in another, the relationships of incompatibility means excluding one meaning from another. Under this heading are grouped sets of lexemes which are mutually exclusive members of the same superordinate category. Daffodil, tulip, rose and pansy are examples, because they are all hyponyms of the same hypernym (flower).

D. Crystal (1995, p.167) illustrates the notion of incompatibility as follows. Compare these two sentences:

The first sentence fails to make sense because daffodil and rose are incompatible. The second sentence succeeds because daffodil and prizewinner are not; they are compatible. Here is another pair of examples – this time using adjectives:

Again, there is a problem with the first sentence, because red and yellow are both hyponyms under colour. Red and dirty, however, do not belong to the same set, and can be used together without difficulty.

Holonymy (in Greek holon = whole and onoma = name) is a semantic relation that defines the relationship between a term denoting the whole and a term denoting a part of, or a member of, the whole. That is,

'X' is a holonym of 'Y' if Ys are parts of Xs, or

'X' is a holonym of 'Y' if Ys are members of Xs.

For example, a tree is a holonym of a bark, of a trunk and of a limb.

Meronymy (from the Greek words meros = part and onoma = name) is a semantic relation concept reciprocal to holonymy. A meronym denotes a constituent part of, or a member of something. That is,

X is a meronym of Y if Xs are parts of Y(s), or

X is a meronym of Y if Xs are members of Y(s).

For example, a finger is a meronym of a hand because a finger is part of a hand. Similarly a wheel is a meronym of an automobile.

The relationship is not as obvious as it may seem. In particular, there is a strong tendency for the relationship to be acceptable only between adjacent items in a chain of more than two. Thus, a door is a part of a house and a house is a part of a village, but it would be most unusual to say that a door is a part of a village.

On the other hand, certain chains do permit a relationship between non-adjacent items: a cuff is a part of a sleeve which is a part of a shirt – but also, a cuff is a part of a shirt.

Part-whole relations can be seen in many areas of the lexicon (Crystal, 1995, p.168):

Series is a type of a semantic relationship which implies that certain lexical units follow each other in a peculiar sequence. The commonest examples of lexical series are the days of the week and months of the year, which are cyclical in character: we reach the end of the series when we start again.

The number system is unique, in the lexicon of a language, because its members are members of an open-ended series in which the place of each item is defined by mathematical rules. We might be tempted to refer to such items as one, two, three, four… as a hierarchy, like military ranks, but the number system is different: from a lexical point of view, 2 is not always ‘higher’ than 1.

A lexical hierarchy is a graded series of lexemes in which each item holds a particular rank, being ‘higher’ or ‘lower’ than adjacent items. The sequence corporal – sergeant – lieutenant is part of one such hierarchy. The relationship between corporal and sergeant is not one of synonymy (they are not the same in meaning), nor antonymy (they are not opposites), nor hyponymy (a corporal is not a kind of sergeant, or vice versa). It is really one of incompatibility, but a rather special kind: the relationship between corporal and sergeant is not like that between clarinet and oboe. Sergeant is ‘higher’ than corporal, whereas neither of the instruments can be said to outrank the other.

Several lexical domains are organized as hierarchies. They often reflect relationships between people, as in the case of military ranks or church seniority: priest – bishop – archbishop. Notions of quantity are also important, especially in relation to units of measurement: second – minute – hour. Some hierarchies also represent levels of abstraction, as can be seen in the levels of grammar: sound – morpheme – word – phrase – clause – sentence – discourse.

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