![Hyponym and hypernym](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Hyponym_and_hypernym.svg)
In
linguistics
Linguistics is the science, scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure ...
,
semantics
Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comp ...
,
general semantics
General semantics is concerned with how events translate to perceptions, how they are further modified by the names and labels we apply to them, and how we might gain a measure of control over our own cognitive, emotional, and behavioral respons ...
, and
ontologies
In computer science and information science, an ontology encompasses a representation, formal naming, and definition of the categories, properties, and relations between the concepts, data, and entities that substantiate one, many, or all domains ...
, hyponymy () is a
semantic relation
Contemporary ontologies share many structural similarities, regardless of the ontology language in which they are expressed. Most ontologies describe individuals (instances), classes (concepts), attributes, and relations.
Overview
Common comp ...
between a hyponym denoting a
subtype
Subtype may refer to:
* Viral subtypes, such as Subtypes of HIV
* Subtyping
In programming language theory, subtyping (also subtype polymorphism or inclusion polymorphism) is a form of type polymorphism in which a subtype is a datatype that is ...
and a hypernym or hyperonym (sometimes called umbrella term or blanket term) denoting a supertype. In other words, the
semantic field
In linguistics, a semantic field is a lexical set of words grouped semantically (by meaning) that refers to a specific subject.Howard Jackson, Etienne Zé Amvela, ''Words, Meaning, and Vocabulary'', Continuum, 2000, p14. The term is also used in ...
of the hyponym is included within that of the hypernym.
In simpler terms, a hyponym is in a
''type-of'' relationship with its hypernym. For example, ''pigeon'', ''crow'', ''eagle'', and ''seagull'' are all hyponyms of ''
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...
'', their hypernym, which itself is a hyponym of ''
animal
Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, are Motilit ...
'', its hypernym.
Hyponyms and hypernyms
Hyponymy shows the relationship between a generic term (hypernym) and a specific instance of it (hyponym). A hyponym is a word or phrase whose semantic field is more specific than its hypernym. The semantic field of a hypernym, also known as a superordinate, is broader than that of a hyponym. An approach to the relationship between hyponyms and hypernyms is to view a hypernym as consisting of hyponyms. This, however, becomes more difficult with abstract words such as ''imagine'', ''understand'' and ''knowledge''. While hyponyms are typically used to refer to nouns, it can also be used on other parts of speech. Like nouns, hypernyms in verbs are words that refer to a broad category of actions. For example, verbs such as ''stare'', ''gaze'', ''view'' and ''peer'' can also be considered hyponyms of the verb ''look'', which is their hypernym.
Hypernyms and hyponyms are asymmetric. Hyponymy can be tested by substituting X and Y in the sentence "X is a kind of Y" and determining if it makes sense.
For example, "A screwdriver is a kind of tool" makes sense, but not "A tool is a kind of screwdriver".
Strictly speaking, the meaning relation between hyponyms and hypernyms applies to lexical items of the same word class (or parts of speech), and holds between
senses
A sense is a biological system used by an organism for sensation, the process of gathering information about the world through the detection of stimuli. (For example, in the human body, the brain which is part of the central nervous system rec ...
rather than words. For instance, the word ''screwdriver'' used in the previous example refers to the
screwdriver tool, and not to the
screwdriver drink.
Hyponymy is a
transitive relation
In mathematics, a relation on a set is transitive if, for all elements , , in , whenever relates to and to , then also relates to . Each partial order as well as each equivalence relation needs to be transitive.
Definition
A ho ...
: if X is a hyponym of Y, and Y is a hyponym of Z, then X is a hyponym of Z. For example, ''
violet
Violet may refer to:
Common meanings
* Violet (color), a spectral color with wavelengths shorter than blue
* One of a list of plants known as violet, particularly:
** ''Viola'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants
Places United States
* Viol ...
'' is a hyponym of ''
purple
Purple is any of a variety of colors with hue between red and blue. In the RGB color model used in computer and television screens, purples are produced by mixing red and blue light. In the RYB color model historically used by painters, ...
'' and ''purple'' is a hyponym of ''
color
Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are assoc ...
''; therefore ''violet'' is a hyponym of ''color''. A word can be both a hypernym and a hyponym: for example ''purple'' is a hyponym of color but itself is a hypernym of the broad spectrum of shades of purple between the range of ''crimson'' and ''violet''.
The hierarchical structure of semantic fields can be mostly seen in hyponymy. They could be observed from top to bottom, where the higher level is more general and the lower level is more specific. For example, ''living things'' will be the highest level followed by ''plants'' and ''animals'', and the lowest level may comprise ''dog'', ''cat'' and ''wolf''.
Under the relations of hyponymy and incompatibility, taxonomic hierarchical structures too can be formed. It consists of two relations; the first one being exemplified in "An X is a Y" (simple hyponymy) while the second relation is "An X is a kind/type of Y". The second relation is said to be more discriminating and can be classified more specifically under the concept of taxonomy.
Co-hyponyms
If the hypernym Z consists of hyponyms X and Y, X and Y are identified as co-hyponyms (cohyponyms), also known as coordinate terms. Co-hyponyms are labelled as such when separate hyponyms share the same hypernym but are not hyponyms of one another, unless they happen to be synonymous.
For example, ''screwdriver'', ''scissors'', ''knife'', and ''hammer'' are all co-hyponyms of one another and hyponyms of ''tool'', but not hyponyms of one another: *"A hammer is a type of knife" is false.
Co-hyponyms are often but not always related to one another by the relation of incompatibility. For example, ''apple'', ''peach'' and ''plum'' are co-hyponyms of ''fruit''. However, an ''apple'' is not a ''peach'', which is also not a ''plum''. Thus, they are incompatible. Nevertheless, co-hyponyms are not necessarily incompatible in all senses. A ''queen'' and ''mother'' are both hyponyms of ''woman'' but there is nothing preventing the ''queen'' from being a ''mother''.
This shows that compatibility may be relevant.
Autohyponyms
![Autohyponyms](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Autohyponyms.svg)
A word is an autohyponym if it is used for both a hypernym and its hyponym. For example, the word ''dog'' describes both the species ''
Canis familiaris
The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...
'' and male individuals of ''Canis familiaris'', so it is possible to say "That dog isn't a dog, it's a bitch" ("That hypernym Z isn't a hyponym Z, it's a hyponym Y"). The term "autohyponym" was coined by linguist
Laurence R. Horn
Laurence Robert Horn (born 1945) is an American linguist. He is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics at Yale University with specialties in pragmatics and semantics. He received his doctorate in 1972 from UCLA and for ...
in a 1984 paper, ''Ambiguity, negation, and the London School of Parsimony.'' Linguist
Ruth Kempson
Ruth Margaret Kempson, FBA (born 26 June 1944) is a British linguist. She is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at King's College, London.
In 1977, Kempson published ''Semantic Theory'', which discusses the concept of entailment in linguistics. ...
had already observed that if there are hyponyms for one part of a set but not another, the hypernym can complement the existing hyponym by being used for the remaining part. For example, fingers describe all digits on a hand, but the existence of the word
thumb for the first finger means that fingers can also be used for "non-thumb digits on a hand".
Autohyponymy is also called "vertical
polysemy".
Horn called this "licensed
polysemy", but found that autohyponyms also formed even when there is no other hyponym.
Yankee
The term ''Yankee'' and its contracted form ''Yank'' have several interrelated meanings, all referring to people from the United States. Its various senses depend on the context, and may refer to New Englanders, residents of the Northern United S ...
is autohyponymous because it is a hyponym (native of New England) and its hypernym (native of the United States), even though there is no other hyponym of Yankee (as native of the United States) that means "not a native of New England".
Similarly, the verb to drink (a beverage) is a hypernym for to drink (an alcoholic beverage).
In some cases, autohyponyms duplicate existing, distinct hyponyms. The hypernym "smell" (to emit any smell) has a hyponym "stink" (to emit a bad smell), but is autohyponymous because "smell" can also mean "to emit a bad smell", even though there is no "to emit a smell that isn't bad" hyponym.
Etymology
Both ''hyperonym'' and ''hypernym'' are in use in linguistics. The form ''hypernym'' takes the ''-o-'' of ''hyponym'' as a part of ''hypo'' in the same way as in the contrast between ''hypertension'' and ''hypotension''. However, etymologically the ''-o-'' is part of the Greek stem ''ónoma''. In other combinations with this stem, e.g. ''synonym'', it is never elided. Therefore, ''hyperonym'' is etymologically more faithful than ''hypernym''. ''Hyperonymy'' is used, for instance, by John Lyons, who does not mention ''hypernymy'' and prefers ''superordination''.
[Lyons, John (1977), ''Semantics'', Vol. 1, p. 291] The nominalization ''hyperonymy'' is rarely used, because the neutral term to refer to the relationship is ''hyponymy''. A practical reason to prefer ''hyperonym'' is that ''hypernym'' is in its spoken form hard to distinguish from ''hyponym'' in most dialects of English.
Usage
Computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...
often terms this relationship an "
is-a
In knowledge representation, object-oriented programming and design (see object-oriented program architecture), is-a (is_a or is a) is a subsumption relationship between abstractions (e.g. types, classes), wherein one class ''A'' is a subclass ...
" relationship. For example, the phrase "Red is-a color" can be used to describe the hyponymic relationship between ''red'' and ''color''.
Hyponymy is the most frequently encoded relation among
synsets used in lexical databases such as
WordNet
WordNet is a lexical database of semantic relations between words in more than 200 languages. WordNet links words into semantic relations including synonyms, hyponyms, and meronyms. The synonyms are grouped into '' synsets'' with short defin ...
. These semantic relations can also be used to compare
semantic similarity
Semantic similarity is a metric defined over a set of documents or terms, where the idea of distance between items is based on the likeness of their meaning or semantic content as opposed to lexicographical similarity. These are mathematical tool ...
by judging the distance between two synsets and to analyse
anaphora.
As a hypernym can be understood as a more general word than its hyponym, the relation is used in
semantic compression In natural language processing, semantic compression is a process of compacting a lexicon used to build
a textual document (or a set of documents) by reducing language heterogeneity, while maintaining text semantics.
As a result, the same ideas ca ...
by generalization to reduce a level of
specialization
Specialization or Specialized may refer to:
Academia
* Academic specialization, may be a course of study or major at an academic institution or may refer to the field in which a specialist practices
* Specialty (medicine), a branch of medical ...
.
The notion of hyponymy is particularly relevant to
language translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...
, as hyponyms are very common across languages. For example, in Japanese the word for older brother is , and the word for younger brother is . An English-to-Japanese translator presented with a phrase containing the English word ''brother'' would have to choose which Japanese word equivalent to use. This would be difficult, because abstract information (such as the speakers' relative ages) is often not available during
machine translation
Machine translation, sometimes referred to by the abbreviation MT (not to be confused with computer-aided translation, machine-aided human translation or interactive translation), is a sub-field of computational linguistics that investigates t ...
.
See also
*
Contrast set A contrast set is a bounded collection of items, each of which could fill the same slot in a given schema, syntactic structure, or other linguistic environment. The seven days of the week, the fifty United States, the eight Hawaiian islands, the let ...
*
Has-a
In database design, object-oriented programming and design (see object oriented program architecture), has-a (has_a or has a) is a composition relationship where one object (often called the constituted object, or part/constituent/member object) " ...
*
Genus proximum
*
Meronymy and holonymy
In linguistics, meronymy () is a semantic relation between a meronym denoting a part and a holonym denoting a whole. In simpler terms, a meronym is in a ''part-of'' relationship with its holonym. For example, ''finger'' is a meronym of ''hand' ...
*
-onym
The suffix ''-onym'' (from grc, ὄνυμα / name) is a bound morpheme, that is attached to the end of a root word, thus forming a new compound word that designates a particular ''class'' of names. In linguistic terminology, compound words t ...
*
Polysemy
*
Subcategory
*
Synonym
*
Taxonomy
Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification.
A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...
*
WordNet
WordNet is a lexical database of semantic relations between words in more than 200 languages. WordNet links words into semantic relations including synonyms, hyponyms, and meronyms. The synonyms are grouped into '' synsets'' with short defin ...
(a
semantic lexicon
A semantic lexicon is a digital dictionary of words labeled with semantic classes so associations can be drawn between words that have not previously been encountered. Semantic lexicons are built upon semantic networks, which represent the semanti ...
for the English language, which puts words in semantic relations to each other, mainly by using the concepts ''hypernym'' and ''hyponym'')
Notes
References
Sources
*
*
External links
Hypernymat Everything2.com
{{Lexicology
Hierarchy
Semantic relations
de:Oberbegriff