University of Mosul Semantics

College of Education for Humanities Course instructor : Mr. Ahmed B. Hassan

Department of English Second semester 2019-20
M.A. candidates

A seminar on lexical relations

(Part two)
Submitted to asst. prof. Ahmed B. Hassan
Presented by Naktal Hareth
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Content of the seminar

Hyponymy
Incompatibility
Hyponymy

Hyponymy refers to the hierarchical relationship between the meaning of

lexemes in which the meaning of one lexeme is included in the meaning
of another one , for example the meaning of panther is included with that
of cat ( as the name of the '' cat ''family ) . Hyponymy also refers to the
semantic relation of inclusion : the meaning of a ( more specific ) lexeme
is included in that of another ( more general ) . Thus , " sun " is a
hyponym of " star " : " star " is the superordinate term ( hyperonym ) ,
and " sun " is the subordinate term ( hyponym ) in this semantic relation .

Entailment is a relation that holds between propositions . It is also

convenient to say that one word or sentence entails another . For example
, dog entails animal , daffodil entails flower and so forth . Therefore , we
can say that the word dog is a hyponym of the word animal and the word
animal is a hyperonym of the word dog . Thus , we can say that a
hyponym is more specific and hyperonym is more general like the ones in
the following diagram :

Satellite

Planet Moon Comet

Nevertheless we can also say that two or more terms which share the
same superordinate are called co-hyponyms . Therefore , dog and horse
are co-hyponyms and the superordinate term is animal . Sometimes , a
word may be superordinate ( hyperonym ) to itself in another sense. This
is the case with " animal " as in the following diagram :
 Creature

Animal vegetables

Animal Bird Insect Fish Carrot Potato Cabbage

Animal Human

Incompatibility

Incompatibility is the logical relation between words that cannot denote

the same thing . it is the most general type of semantic relation between
lexical items , the meaning of which entails exclusion . such items fall
under a superordinate term or concept and denote sets which have no
members in common . there is typically a set of terms each of which
entails exclusion . incompatibility is not just a relation that signifies
difference in meaning . hence , incompatible items are lexical items
which denote classes that have no members in common , they refer to
mutual exclusiveness within the same superordinate category such as the
following :

Animal _ dog , cat , mouse , lion

Fruit _ apple , orange , banana .

Colour _ red , blue , black

Hence , if something is a mouse , then it is not a dog , cat , horse .

Moreover , it is also worth to be mentioned that some co-hyponyms are
not necessarily incompatible . for instance , queen and mother are both
hyponyms of the superordinate ( hyperonym ) woman . yet , there is
nothing to prevent a queen from being a mother
References
Al-Sulaiman , M . Semantics and Pragmatics . Mosul : Daar Ibn Al-
Atheer , 2010 .

Curse , A . meaning in Language . New York : Oxford University press ,

2000 .