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Paradigmatic relations of lexical units
There are two major groups of paradigmatic relations of lexical units, and namely words:
1. The relations of inclusion, or hierarchical relations (hyponymy, meronymy and serial relations);
2. The relations of compatibility (synonymy, antonymy and incompatibility).
1. The first, most obvious type of hierarchical semantic relationship between words is hyponymy, or hypero-hyponymic relations. Hyponymy is based on inclusion - the relation of words that can be described as 'the kind of relation. Thus, since a tulip is a kind of flower,/lower is a kind of plant, etc., the words tulip, flower and plant are in a hyponymic relationship:
Hyponymy is the most efficient way of explaining meaning in a dictionary. The noun canary, for example, may be defined as 'a finch that is characteristically green to yellow and is bred for song'. Finch is 'a songbird that is small and has a short bill'. Songbird is 'a bird that utters a characteristic musical song'. And bird is 'an animal that is warmblooded, has feathers, wings, and a bill, and usually can fly'. Summing up the definitions we may arrive to the following hierarchy:
In this hierarchy the word at the bottom, canary, is subordinate la finch. It has a more specialized meaning and is a hyponym [Gk 'under'+name] to finch. In its turn, finch is a hyponym of song-bird, and song-bird is a hyponym to bird.
This hierarchy may be read not only from the bottom to the top (this hierarchy should be called hypo-hyperonymic) but also from the top to the bottom (it will be called hypero-hyponymic then). In this case the word at the top bird is the superordmate - the lexeme with a general meaning, or a hyperonym [Gk ' above 4-name] for songbird; songbird is a hyperonym tot finch and finch is a hyperonym for canary. (The terms hyperonym and hyponym were first used by John Lyons /Lyons 1963: 69-71/).
Hyponymy is the most pervasive type of semantic word relationship structuring large parts of the lexicon. It is observed in various parts of speech but most typical hyponymy is in concrete nouns.
One should also mention quasi-hyponymy, a relationship which takes place between some nouns and especially between some adjectives and verbs when the real hyperonym is missing in the language system. Thus, a word cutlery is a quasi-, or pseudo-hyperonym for knife, fork and spoon as it in contrast to them it belongs to a different lexico-grammatical class: the class of non-countable nouns. Coloured is a quasi-hyperonym for
colours of spectrum green or yellow, or red because it includes black which can hardly be called the colour of the spectrum.
The second, less studied type of hierarchical relations between words is more difficult 1o describe. It is meronymy - the relations of parts to the -whole (in some works these relations are called partonomy). Meronymy is a second major type of lexical hierarchy. The division of the human body into parts serves as a prototype for all part-whole hierarchies, where finger is a mcronym of hand, and hand is a meronym of
arm:
These relations are diverse (cf. the relations between a finger and a hand - visible, more or less clear-cut, but non-detachable; a handle and a door - visible, clear-cut and detachable; a chin and a face - not clearly cut, non-detachable.
Words having meronymic relations can be described with a frame 'A has В': 'a body has an arm', 'an arm has a hand' a hand has fingers'; 'a car has wheels; a book has pages'; 'a saw has teeth', etc. But due to ambiguity of the word to have this frame is too general. It includes different attributes:
A car has wheels ('includes as its detachable part'), A woman has a husband ('acquires but hardly has a possession of), A sound has a pitch of voice ('is characterized by').
Another frame describing meronymy is 'something is apart of something'. But this is also too wide because other types of conceptual relations that are not meronymic may be described with this frame. For example, Changing diapers is part of being a mother.
Only proper meronyms satisfy both frames. In a case of meronymy it is possible to say:
A car has wheels and
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