lexical and semantie relations

e/able grain
. So, we can say
that the category
breviate this with
101always points
word may have
on the next level
aid to be transi-
:xample, cheddar
ddar is a type of
:not all 'type-of"
p
m from the fact
ne. The relation
included in the
Ind opening and
uticular kind of
2b) i not proper
trinking vesseI -
drinking ve el.
rxonymy ( ince
a e in (12b) can
rather than 'is a
" there are other
hyponymy. A
r to aya queen
of monarch). In
ny in which we
relation, while
ica! hyponym ,
lexical and semantie relations I 15
ince they are reliably transitive and are easiest lo de eribe in the terms 'X
is a type of Y. '
Puzzle 6-2
The inclu ion/taxonym relation is asymmetrical and transitive. Reconsider
ynonymy in light of the e terms. Is ynonymy symmetrical or a ymmetrical?
Tran itive or intransitive? Is your an wef the same for perfect ynonym and
near- ynonym ?
Folk vs. scientific taxonomies and the basie level
An important thing to notice about taxonomies is that the level are not equally
valuable to u on an everyday basis. Dairy product i somewhat artificial as a
hyperonym for cheese. In everyday language we would probably ay that cheese
is a type of food, but in the language of supermarket manager, dairy product
i a much-need ed lexeme that allow. for a contra t between the category that
chee e belong to and the one that potatoes belong to. The everyday kind of
taxonomy that goe traight from cheese to food is called a folk taxonomy,
while in more speeialist context, we might need more elaborate taxonornies
with more fine-grained level of cIas ification. For instance, in everyday ituations,
we are happy to ay a dog is a type of animal, but a zoologi t might
need to specify dog < canine < mammal < vertebrate < animal. o matter
how many levels a laxonomy has, though, the same principie generally
apply.
Even among the smaller number of level in folk taxonomy one level i more
alient - i.e. more readily used and noticed - than the others. Sticking with the
cheese example, notice that if you make a sandwich out of cheddar, you are likely
to cali it a cheese andwicli rather than a cheddar sandwich. lf you saw a picture
of cheddar, you would probably say it wa a picture of cheese. Even though you
have more pecific information about the nature of the ehee e. you are likely to
cali it cheese rather than cheddar in many situations. We would not u e more
general name in the e ituations either; you would not ay CI food sandwich or
Q dairy-product sandwich. There i a level between too peeifie and too general
that we generally attend to, called the basie level.
Ro ch (1978) and other have noted that the basie level is pecial, both in linguistic
and cognitive terms. In cognitive term ,the ba ie level i the level at whieh
we notice and can ea ily differentiate between type of thing. At the lingui -
tic level, the name for basie level items tend to be more ba ic them elves -
one morpheme rather than more - and are the term we learn fir t. Some
of the recognized properties of basie level item /term are ummarized in
table 6.1.