A meronomy or is a hierarchical
taxonomy
image:Hierarchical clustering diagram.png, 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy
Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme o ...
that deals with part–whole relationships. For example, a car has parts that include engine, body and wheels; and the body has parts that include doors and windows.
These conceptual structures are used in
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
and
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
, with applications in
biology
Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...
. The part–whole relationship is sometimes referred to as ''HAS-A'', and corresponds to object composition in
object-oriented programming
Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the concept of '' objects''. Objects can contain data (called fields, attributes or properties) and have actions they can perform (called procedures or methods and impl ...
.
The study of meronomy is known as ''
mereology'', and in linguistics a ''meronym'' is the name given to a constituent part of, a substance of, or a member of something. "X" is a meronym of "Y" if an X is a part of a Y. The unit of organisation that corresponds to the taxonomical taxon is the meron.
Example
*Cars have parts: engine, headlight, wheel
**Engines have parts: crankcase, carburetor
**Headlights have parts: headlight bulb, reflector
**Wheels have parts: rim, spokes
In knowledge representation
In formal terms, in the context of
knowledge representation
Knowledge representation (KR) aims to model information in a structured manner to formally represent it as knowledge in knowledge-based systems whereas knowledge representation and reasoning (KRR, KR&R, or KR²) also aims to understand, reason, and ...
and
ontologies
In information science, an ontology encompasses a representation, formal naming, and definitions of the categories, properties, and relations between the concepts, data, or entities that pertain to one, many, or all domains of discourse. More ...
, a meronomy is a
partial order
In mathematics, especially order theory, a partial order on a set is an arrangement such that, for certain pairs of elements, one precedes the other. The word ''partial'' is used to indicate that not every pair of elements needs to be comparable ...
of concept types by the part–whole
relation.
In the classic study of parts and wholes,
mereology, the three defining properties of a partial order serve as
axioms.
Simple part-whole relations in OWL Ontologies
/ref> They are, respectively, that the part-of relation is:
* Transitive – "Parts of parts are parts of the whole" (If ''A'' is part of ''B'' and ''B'' is part of ''C'', then ''A'' is part of ''C'');
* Reflexive – "Everything is part of itself" (''A'' is part of ''A''); and
* Antisymmetric – "Nothing is a part of its parts" (If ''A'' is part of ''B'' and ''A'' ≠ ''B'', then ''B'' is not part of ''A'').
Meronomies may be represented in semantic web
The Semantic Web, sometimes known as Web 3.0, is an extension of the World Wide Web through standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The goal of the Semantic Web is to make Internet data machine-readable.
To enable the encoding o ...
languages such as OWL and SKOS. In natural language
A natural language or ordinary language is a language that occurs naturally in a human community by a process of use, repetition, and change. It can take different forms, typically either a spoken language or a sign language. Natural languages ...
s they are represented by meronyms and holonyms.
See also
* Mereology
* Meronymy
References
{{reflist
External links
Introduction to WordNet: An On-line Lexical Database
W3C SKOS Home Page
Mereology
Hierarchy
Semantic relations