6.

Hierarchical Sense Relations: Hyponymy and Meronymy

6.1 Hyponymy
Hyponymy, like incompatibility and antonymy has been one of the topics of
lively interest for lexical semantics since the structuralist period. lthou!h "yons #1$6%&
declared that all sense relations 'ere context dependent, they have almost universally
been treated #includin! by "yons himself& as stable properties of individual lexical items.
(raditionally, sense relations are defined in terms of entailment, i.e. of the lo!ical
relation bet'een t'o sentences such that the truth of the second sentence follo's from
the truth of the first. )n this approach, a sentence like Its a dog unilaterally entails Its
an animal so dog is a hyponym of animal. Similarly, I always avoid the red skirts
unilaterally entails I always avoid the scarlet skirts and John punched Bill unilaterally
entails John hit Bill. s can be noticed, the normal direction in the entailment is from
hyponym to superordinate.
Hyponymy is one of the most fundamental paradi!matic relations, correspondin!
to the inclusion of one class in another. *or example, terms such as daisy, daffodil and
rose all contain the meanin! of flower. (hat is to say, they are all hyponyms of flower.
(he set of terms 'hich are hyponyms of the same superordinate term are co-
hyponyms, for example, red, black and yellow, in the colour system, or ox, bull, calf that
are covered by the superordinate term cattle.
nother 'ay of describin! the relationship is to say that the individual colours are sisters
of the parent term colour or sisters of the parent term cattle.
hyponym is a 'ord that is more specific #less !eneral&, 'hich has more
elements of meanin! and is more marked than its superordinate. *or example, it can be
marked for a!e #puppy, kitten, calf, piglet, duckling and cygnet are marked, 'hile dog,
cat, cow, pig, duck, swan are unmarked& or for sex #bitch, drake, bull, hog, sow, cob, pen
are marked, 'hile dog, duck, cow, pig, swan are unmarked&. Hence, 'e can define
hyponyms in terms of the hypernym plus a sin!le feature, as in stallion+,male horse,,
kitten+,youn! cat,.
(he more !eneral term 'ith reference to 'hich the subordinate term can be
defined, as is the usual practice in dictionary definitions #-a cat is a type of animal.,& is
called the superordinate or hypernym. Sometimes a 'ord may be superordinate to itself
in another sense. (his is the case 'ith animal, as sho'n in the fi!ure belo'. (he first
occurrence, opposed to vegetable, is the sense contained in the phrase -the animal
kin!dom,. (he second occurrence is synonymous 'ith mammal, and the third 'ith beast.
1

Superordinate terms in turn may become hyponyms in relation to a more !eneral
superordinate term: e.!. cattle is a hyponym of animal. /airs of lexical items related by
hyponymy are far more fre0uently found amon! nouns than amon! ad1ectives or verbs.
Hyponymy is a vertical relationship 'hich is fundamental to the 'ay in 'hich 'e
classify thin!s. Most dictionaries rely on it for the provision of definitions #-a chair is a
type of furniture,, -a flute is a type of musical instrument, and so on&. Hyponymy offers a
!ood or!ani2in! principle for vocabulary learnin! and teachin!. Most lan!ua!e
coursebooks use this feature of or!ani2ation implicitly or explicitly in !roupin! names of
flo'ers to!ether or !arnments or articles of furniture.
Autohyponymy
utohyponymy is a variety of polysemy #3ruse, 4556: 15%& and occurs 'hen a
'ord has a default !eneral sense and a contextually restricted sense 'hich is more
specific in that it denotes a subvariety of a !eneral sense. *or example, do! has t'o
senses, a !eneral sense, -member of the canine race, as in og and cat owners must
register their pets and a more specific meanin! as in !hats not a dog, its a bitch.
7hat is interestin! to note is that in the lexicali2ation of a distinction of sex, for
some species it is the lexeme denotin! males, and for other species the lexeme that
denotin! females that is semantically marked #for more details about markedness see the
next chapter&.n instance of !enerali2ation of a feminine term is the use of cow as in
those cows over there or a field full of cows to refer to bovines of both sexes, especially
'hen there is a mixed !roup.
"ivin! thin!s
nimal 8e!etable
9ird *ish :nsect
Human
nimal
4
nimal
6.4 "eronymy
Meronymy is a term used to describe a part;'hole relationship bet'een lexical
items. *or instance, cover and pa!e are meronyms of book. 7e can identify this
relationship by usin! sentence frames like < is part of =, or = has <, as in a pa!e is a
part of a book or a book has pa!es.
(he lexical relation of meronymy, sometimes referred to as partonymy, is usually
informally described as -part;'hole relation. 3roft and 3ruse #4556: 1>1& claim that
meronymy is a relation bet'een meanin!s, 'hereas the part;'hole relation links t'o
individual entities and !enerates chains of elements: is a part of 9, 9 is a part of 3, 3 is
a part of ? and so on. *or instance,
fin!ertip is a part of a fin!er.
fin!er is a part of hand.
hand is a part of arm.
n arm is a part of a body.
n important point is that the net'orks identified as meronymy are lexical: it is
conceptually possible to se!ment an item in countless 'ays, but only some divisions are
coined in the vocabulary of a lan!ua!e. @very lan!ua!e has a ran!e of 'ays of referrin!
to parts of thin!s. Many of these 'ays involve speciali2ed lexical items.
Meronymy is similar to hyponymy because it reflects a hierarchical and
asymmetrical relationship bet'een 'ords, represented by the -less than, si!n. *or
example, stan#a is a meronym of poem, but poem is not a meronym of stan#a. )r, sonnet
is a hyponym of poem but poem is not a hypomym of sonnet. Ho'ever, unlike
hyponymic relations, meronymic hierarchies are less clear cut and re!ular. Meronyms
may vary in ho' necessary the part is to the 'hole. Some are for normal examples, for
example, nose is a meronym of face, others are usual but not obli!atory, like collar, as a
meronym of shirt, still other are optional, like cellar for house.
Meronymy also differs from hyponymy in transitivity. Hyponymy is al'ays
transitive, but meronymy may or may not be. transitive example is nail, a meronym of
finger and finger of hand. 7e can see that nail is a meronym of hand as 'e can say $
hand has nails. non;transitive example is: pane is a meronym of window #$ window
has a pane& and window of room #$ room has a window&A but pane is not a meronym of
room, for 'e cannot say $ room has a pane. )r hole is a meronym of button and button
of shirt, but 'e 'ouldn,t say that hole is a meronym of shirt #$ shirt has holes&.
Automeronymy
3ruse #4556: 156& ar!ues that automeronymy, like autohyponymy, is a variety of
polysemy. 7hile in the case of autohyponymy the more specific readin! denotes a
subtype, in the case of automeronymy the more specific readin! denotes a subpart. *or
instance, door can refer to either the 'hole set;up 'ith 1ambs, lintel, threshold, hin!es
and the leaf panel as in Bo throu!h that door or 1ust to the leaf, as in (ake the door off its
hin!es. *urther, a sentence such as 7e took the door off its hin!es and 'alked throu!h it
illustrates 2eu!ma.
C
Hyponymic and meronymic enrichment
(he effects of context on the meanin! of a 'ord can be seen in 'hat 3ruse #4556:
11$& calls -contextual modulation, that can manifest itself in t'o forms or varieties:
enrichment, i.e., the addition of semantic content to the meanin! of a 'ord and
impoverishment, i.e. the removal of semantic content from the meanin! of a 'ord.
Hyponymic enrichment arises 'hen the context adds features of meanin! to a
'ord 'hich are not made explicit by the lexical item itself:
%ur maths teacher is on maternity leave #!ender is determined&
"y brother always bumps his head when he goes through the door #hei!ht is determined&
"y coffee burnt my tongue. #temperature is determined&
%ur house was burgled while we were away. !hey only took the video, though #le!ality is
determined&
Sometimes the context points to a specific kind of the class normally denoted by
the lexical item employed, rather than addin! a feature, like in I wish that animal would
stop barkink&miaowing or John is going well in the '())*metres freestyle.
Meronymic enrichment arises 'hen there is specification to part of 'hat the
lexical item used normally refers to. (his part may be definite and identifiable #e.!. a tyre
as in $ car has a puncture& or less definite #e.!. a cars damaged area as in !he car was
damaged when John drove it into a tree&. (his kind of narro'in! do'n to a part, that is,
meronymic enrichment, is 'idespread in lan!ua!e use and speakers are not usually a'are
of this. *or instance, a red book has red covers, not red letters, 'hereas a red warning
sign most likely has red letters. *urther examples include noun phrases made up of a
colour ad1ective and a head nounA very often the colour does not apply !lobally to the
ob1ect denoted by the head noun but only to a part: a red apple #a si!nificant portion of
outer skin is red&, a yellow peach #inner flesh is yello'&, a pink grapefruit #inner flesh is
pink&, red yes #'hite of eyes is red&, blue eyes #iris is blue&. :n all these examples the
colour ad1ective indicates that the referent of the head noun is distinctive by virtue of its
possession of an area 'ith certain perceptual properties.
6.C +tudy ,uestions and exercises
1. 3omment on the readin! of the italici2ed items in the follo'in! pair sentences:
1. a. :t is man that is responsible for environmental pollution.
b. (hat man entered the room in a hurry.
4. a. =ou must not drink anythin! on the day of the operation
b. Dohn doesn,t drink E he,ll have an oran!e 1uice.
4. 9uild up the hierarchy of terms for birds in @n!lish, includin! chicken, ea!le, sparro',
duck, hen, hummin! bird, chick, ostrich, fo'l, o'l, pen!uin, dobin, falcon. *ind names
for each !roup.

C. 3onstruct the hyponymy tree for car.
7hat is the superordinate term and 'hat co;hyponyms can you findF
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6. Make up hyponymy ; trees for the follo'in! 'ords:
a& tomato b& hammer c& bench
7hat are the most !eneral 'ords that you have includedF
7hat are the most specificF
>. 3onstruct the hyponymy tree for 9:R?.
>