Linguistics: Meronymy and Holonymy

Holonymy

• Refers to the relationship between a part and the whole of which it is a part
• A holonym is a word that represents the larger entity
• Example: In the pair "tree - branches," "tree" is the holonym, and "branches" are the meronyms

Synonymy

• Refers to the lexical relation dealing with the sameness of meaning
• Also called Meaning Identity
• Three categories of synonymy: • Lexical Synonymy: deals with the synonymy between individual lexemes (e.g., "drink" and "beverage") • Phrasal Synonymy: deals with the synonymy between phrases (e.g., "Take a seat" and "Be seated") • Sense Synonymy: deals with the synonymy between the senses of a word (e.g., "pupil" and "student" are synonymous in one sense, but not in another)

Homonymy

• Refers to linguistic phenomena involving the relationships between words and their meanings
• A situation where a single phonological form possesses unrelated meanings
• Example: [weIv] - verb → spelt as wave or waive (depending on the meaning)
• Two types of homonymy: • Homographs: two words that have different pronunciations but the same spelling (e.g., Bow (noun) / Bow (verb)) • Homophones: words that sound alike but have different meanings and often different spellings (e.g., "to," "too," and "two")

Polysemy

• Refers to the phenomenon where a single word has multiple related meanings or senses
• These senses are often connected by metaphorical or analogical extensions of the word's original meaning
• Example: The word "chair" refers to an item of furniture, but also means ‘professorship’ and ‘head of a committee’

Monosemy

• Refers to the property of having only one meaning
• The absence of ambiguity in a word
• Example: The word "apple" is monosemous because it has only one commonly understood meaning

Antonymy

• Refers to the lexical relation dealing with the opposition of meaning
• Two categories of antonyms: • Non-Gradable Antonyms: antonyms that do not admit a midpoint, exhibiting an either-or relationship between the pairs (e.g., "dead" and "alive") • Gradable Antonyms: antonyms that are opposite ends of the spectrum with a midpoint between them (e.g., "high" and "low")

Metalanguage and Object Language

• Object Language: the language whose meanings we are describing
• Metalanguage: the language in which we describe these meanings
• Example: Dirk è alto, ma Lou è basso (in Italian language) → "Dirk is tall, but Lou is short" (in English language)

Collocation

• Refers to the co-occurrence patterns of words or phrases within a language, specifically in relation to their semantic compatibility