Meronymy(fromGreekmeros, "part"

and onoma, "name") is a

semantic relationspecific tolinguistics,
distinct from the similar meronomy.
A meronym denotes a constituent part of, or

a member of something.

The study of meronomy is known as

mereology,
and in linguistics ameronymis the
name given to a constituent part of,
the substance of, or a member of
something.
"X" is a meronym of "Y" if an X is a
part of a Y.

The classic study of parts and wholes,

mereology, has threeaxioms:
the part-ofrelationis
Transitive
Reflexive
Antisymmetric

The classic study of parts and wholes,

mereology, has threeaxioms:
the part-ofrelationis
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.
Antisymmetric "Nothing is a part of its parts"

if A is part of B and A!= B then B is not part

Ameronomyorpartonomyis a type of

hierarchythat deals with partwhole

relationships,
in contrast to ataxonomywhose
categorisation is based on discrete sets.
These conceptual structures are used in
linguisticsandcomputer science, with
applications inbiology.

Taxonomy(fromAncientGreek:taxis,

"arrangement," and--nomia, "method"[1]

) is thescienceof defining groups of
biologicalorganismson the basis of shared
characteristics and giving names to those
groups.
Organisms are grouped together intotaxa
(singular: taxon) and given ataxonomic rank;
groups of a given rank can be aggregated to
form a super group of higher rank and thus
create a taxonomic hierarchy.

Taxonomy has been called "the

world's oldest profession"

Taxonomy has been called "the world's

oldest profession", and naming and

classifying our surroundings has likely been
taking place as long as mankind has been
able to communicate. It would always have
been important to know the names of
poisonous and edible plants and animals in
order to communicate this information to
other members of the family or group.

The Swedish botanistCarolus Linnaeusis

regarded as the father of taxonomy, as he

developed a system known as
Linnaean classificationfor categorization of
organisms and binomial nomenclaturefor
naming organisms.

The Swedish botanistCarl Linnaeus

(17071778) ushered in a new era of
taxonomy. He revolutionized modern
taxonomy.
In the taxonomyof Linnaeus there

are three kingdoms, divided

intoclasses, and they, in turn,
intoorders,families,genera(singular
:genus), andspecies(singular:
species), with an additional rank
lower than species.

As points of reference, recent

definitions of taxonomy are
presented below:
Theory and practice of grouping individuals into species
A field of science that encompasses description, identification
The science of classification, in biology the arrangement of

organisms into a classification.

"The science of classification as applied to living organisms,
including study of means of formation of species, etc."
"The analysis of an organism's characteristics for the purpose
of classification"
"[Systematics] studies phylogeny to provide a pattern that can
be translated into the classification and names of the more
inclusive field of taxonomy."

Meronomies do not , in general,

allow transitivity at logical and
linguistic levels.
This transitivity should be indicated in each

description. For example, the property color

associated to the body of a car is usually
inherited by the whole, i.e the car.

Meronomy or partonomy (parts of

things) is an important relationship

for nouns.
a body has a head, a trunk, legs and

arms. And the parts themselves have

parts, so a leg has a thigh, a knee , a
shin, and a foot, and a foot has toes,
and so on..

In short, meronomy is an

important relationships of nouns,

but one whose properties are still
being explored. Nouns involve
not only parts: a canary has a
beak, wings, but also is small,
yellow, and functions: a canary
sings, eats, can fly. Though these
leads back to a discussion of
prototypes.

The meronomy relation has itself

some properties.
models:
optionality of a part , and
cardinality of a part with respect to the whole,
e.g a human has 2 legs, a car has 4 wheels.

Winston and Chaffin distinguish 6

kinds of meronomies:
Component/ integral object: handle/cup ,
phonology/linguistics.
member/set or group: tree/forest,
student/class.
portion/mass : slice/bread, centimeter/ meter.
Object / material: Alcohol/wine, steel/car.
Sub-activity/activity or process:pay/buy,
give exams/teach.
precise place /area: :oasis/desert ,
Alps/Europe.