Semantics

140 BASIC SEMANTICS
distinctiveness of members from those in sister categories. Cruse (1986)
gives as a good example of a taxonomy, the tableware taxonomy. The
following chart is an adaptation of his tableware taxonomy:
tableware
cutlery
crokery
table linen
fork
knife
spoon
cup
plate
bowl
table cloth
napkin
tablespoon
teaspoon
soupspoon
In this example, what Cruse calls substantive level is what cognitive
psychologists call basic level, that is, the level displaying the richest set of
characteristic or prototypical properties. Vocabulary items at levels below
the basic level are more likely to be compound words than those at the
basic level. In hierarchies where the basic-level items are count nouns,
the items at higher levels are frequently mass nouns.
6.1.3. Meronymic hierarchies
In this type of hierarchy the relation of dominance is meronymy and
the relation of differentiation is co-meronymy. The most popular example
is the human body as seen from the outside.
In relation to meronymy, the main difference between a taxonomy and
a meronymy is the lack of clear generalized levels in the latter. For example,
there is homology between arm and leg: knee corresponds to elbow, sole
of foot to palm of hand and toes to fingers, but this does not extend to other
parts of the body. For this reason, Cruse explains that there seems to be
no equivalent to the basic level of a taxonomy.
In hierarchies we can also find lexical gaps and contrastive aspects in
different languages. Different languages do not always coincide in the
structuring of the human body. We find lexical gaps when the division in
one language is finer than the other.