Synonyms are words which have the same meaning. Of course, this is not completely true. There is almost always some kind of difference between two words. In the diagram at the bottom of this post, speak, say, and tell are synonyms of each other.
Showing posts with label hyponyms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hyponyms. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Semantic Relations--Hyponyms
Semantics deals with word meanings. There are many ways in which words can be semantically related. One of these is hyponymy.
Hypo- in Greek means "under"
and -onym means "name"
so a hyponym is an "under name."
is-a shows a semantic relationship.
"X" is-a "Z" and "Y" is-a "Z"
"X" and "Y" are hyponyms of "Z."
= The meaning X and Y is included in the meaning of Z.
Here are some examples:
{ABC...XYZ} and {abc...xyz} are all letters, so {ABC...XYZ} and {abc...xyz} are hyponyms of "letter." Capital letters and lower-case letters, vowel letters and consonant letters are all letters, and none of them is more important than any other letters, so they are all drawn with the same shapes and arranged in a circle:
Mothers and fathers are parents. So are grandmothers and grandfathers, stepmothers and stepfathers. However, the words "mother" and "father" are closer to the typical, everyday meaning of "parent," so I didn't use the same shapes for all of these words.
In the picture below, octagons (= 8-sided figures) are closest in shape to circles, so these shapes represent "mother" and "father." Triangles (= 3-sided figures) are much farther away from the typical, everyday meaning of "parent," so they represent the words for stepparents.
Hypo- in Greek means "under"
and -onym means "name"
so a hyponym is an "under name."
is-a shows a semantic relationship.
"X" is-a "Z" and "Y" is-a "Z"
"X" and "Y" are hyponyms of "Z."
= The meaning X and Y is included in the meaning of Z.
Here are some examples:
{ABC...XYZ} and {abc...xyz} are all letters, so {ABC...XYZ} and {abc...xyz} are hyponyms of "letter." Capital letters and lower-case letters, vowel letters and consonant letters are all letters, and none of them is more important than any other letters, so they are all drawn with the same shapes and arranged in a circle:
 |
| Hyponyms--Letters |
Mothers and fathers are parents. So are grandmothers and grandfathers, stepmothers and stepfathers. However, the words "mother" and "father" are closer to the typical, everyday meaning of "parent," so I didn't use the same shapes for all of these words.
In the picture below, octagons (= 8-sided figures) are closest in shape to circles, so these shapes represent "mother" and "father." Triangles (= 3-sided figures) are much farther away from the typical, everyday meaning of "parent," so they represent the words for stepparents.
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