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Hypernym
 
 
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In linguistics
Linguistics

Linguistics is the science study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of Meaning ....
, a hyponym is a word
Word

A word is a unit of language that represents a concept which can be expressively communication with Meaning . A word consists of one or more morphemes which are linked more or less tightly together, and has a phonetic value....
 or phrase
Phrase

In grammar, a phrase is a group of words that functions as a single unit in the syntax of a Sentence .For example the house at the end of the street is a phrase....
 whose semantic
Semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning in communication. The word is derived from the Greek language word s??a?t???? , "significant", from s??a??? , "to signify, to indicate" and that from s??a , "sign, mark, token"....
 range is included within that of another word. For example, scarlet, vermilion, carmine, and crimson are all hyponyms of red (their hypernym
Hypernym

In linguistics, a hyponym is a word or phrase whose semantics range is included within that of another word. For example, scarlet, vermilion, carmine, and crimson are all hyponyms of red , which is, in turn, a hyponym of colour....
), which is, in turn, a hyponym of colour.

According to Fromkin and Rodman, hyponyms are a set of related words whose meanings are specific instances of a more general word (so, for example, red, white, blue, etc., are hyponyms of colour).






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In linguistics
Linguistics

Linguistics is the science study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of Meaning ....
, a hyponym is a word
Word

A word is a unit of language that represents a concept which can be expressively communication with Meaning . A word consists of one or more morphemes which are linked more or less tightly together, and has a phonetic value....
 or phrase
Phrase

In grammar, a phrase is a group of words that functions as a single unit in the syntax of a Sentence .For example the house at the end of the street is a phrase....
 whose semantic
Semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning in communication. The word is derived from the Greek language word s??a?t???? , "significant", from s??a??? , "to signify, to indicate" and that from s??a , "sign, mark, token"....
 range is included within that of another word. For example, scarlet, vermilion, carmine, and crimson are all hyponyms of red (their hypernym
Hypernym

In linguistics, a hyponym is a word or phrase whose semantics range is included within that of another word. For example, scarlet, vermilion, carmine, and crimson are all hyponyms of red , which is, in turn, a hyponym of colour....
), which is, in turn, a hyponym of colour.

According to Fromkin and Rodman, hyponyms are a set of related words whose meanings are specific instances of a more general word (so, for example, red, white, blue, etc., are hyponyms of colour). Hyponymy is thus the relationship between a general term such as polygon and specific instances of it, such as triangle.

Computer science
Computer science

Computer science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation, and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems....
 often terms this relationship an is-a
Is-a

In knowledge representation and object-oriented programming and Object-oriented design , is-a is a relationship where one class D is a subclass of another class B ....
 relationship. For example, the phrase Red is a colour can be used to describe the hyponymic relationship between red and colour.

Thus the term Hypernym denotes a word which is usually somewhat vague and broad in meaning and that other more specific words fall under or are fairly encompassed by.

For example, vehicle denotes all the things that are separately denoted by the words train
Train

A train is a connected series of vehicles that move along a track to rail transport from one place to another. The track usually consists of two rail tracks, but might also be a monorail or magnetic levitation train guideway....
, chariot
Chariot

The chariot is the earliest and simplest type of carriage, used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Chariots were built in Mesopotamia by the Mesopotamians as early as 3000 BC and in China during the 2nd millennium BC....
, dogsled, airplane
Fixed-wing aircraft

A fixed-wing aircraft is an aircraft capable of heavier-than-air flight whose Lift is generated not by wing motion relative to the aircraft, but by forward motion through the air....
, and automobile
Automobile

An automobile or motor car is a wheeled motor vehicle for transportation passengers, which also carries its own car engine or motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally f...
 and is therefore a hypernym of each of those words. Conversely, the words train, chariot etc. are hyponyms of vehicle.

Hypernymy is the semantic relation
Semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning in communication. The word is derived from the Greek language word s??a?t???? , "significant", from s??a??? , "to signify, to indicate" and that from s??a , "sign, mark, token"....
 in which one word is the hypernym of another. Hypernymy, the relation words stand in when their extensions stand in the relation of class to subclass, should not be confused with holonymy
Holonymy

Holonymy is a semantics. Holonymy defines the relationship between a term denoting the whole and a term denoting a part of, or a member of, the whole....
 which is the relation words stand in when the things that they denote stand in the relation of whole to part. A similar warning applies to hyponymy and meronymy
Meronymy

Meronymy is a semantics used in linguistics. A meronym denotes a constituent part of, or a member of something. That is,For example, 'finger' is a meronym of 'hand' because a finger is part of a hand....
.

Automatically finding hypernyms


One of the first suggestions on how to find hypernym/hyponym pairs in a text came from Marti Hearst, who suggested looking at the output of a parser
Parsing

In computer science and linguistics, parsing, or, more formally, syntactic analysis, is the process of analyzing a sequence of lexical analysis#Token to determine their grammatical structure with respect to a given formal grammar....
 and taking all of the terms linked by constructions such as X and other Y; X could be considered a possible hyponym of Y. This method was extended by Snow et al, who developed an automated method of finding possible constructions that could signal such a pair.

Their process works by taking hypernym/hyponym pairs from WordNet
WordNet

WordNet is a lexical database for the English language. It groups English words into sets of synonyms called synsets, provides short, general definitions, and records the various semantic relations between these synonym sets....
 and finding many noun-noun pairs from a parsed corpus
Text corpus

In linguistics, a corpus or text corpus is a large and structured set of texts . They are used to do statistical analysis and hypothesis testing, checking occurrences or validating linguistic rules on a specific universe....
. They train a classifier
Naive Bayes classifier

A naive Bayes classifier is a term in Bayesian statistics statistics dealing with a simple probabilistic Classifier based on applying Bayes' theorem with strong statistical independence assumptions....
 to select those pairs of words that have a high probability of being hypernym pairs given the constructions which link the terms in the corpus.

See also


  • -onym
    -onym

    The Affix ?onym, in English language, means "word, name," and words ending in ?onym refer to a specified kind of name or word, most of which are classical compounds....
  • synonym
    Synonym

    Synonyms are different words with identical or very similar meanings. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy....
  • WordNet
    WordNet

    WordNet is a lexical database for the English language. It groups English words into sets of synonyms called synsets, provides short, general definitions, and records the various semantic relations between these synonym sets....
     (a semantic lexicon for the English language, which puts words in semantic relations to each other, mainly by using the concepts hypernym and hyponym.)
  • Sub- and Subcategory
    Subcategory

    In mathematics, a subcategory of a category C is a category S whose objects are objects in C and whose morphisms are morphisms in C with the same identities and composition of morphisms....
  • Meronymy
    Meronymy

    Meronymy is a semantics used in linguistics. A meronym denotes a constituent part of, or a member of something. That is,For example, 'finger' is a meronym of 'hand' because a finger is part of a hand....
  • Is-a
    Is-a

    In knowledge representation and object-oriented programming and Object-oriented design , is-a is a relationship where one class D is a subclass of another class B ....