Hyponimic (or hierarchical) structures and lexico-semantic groups

Another approach to the classification of vocabulary items into lexico-semantic groups is hyponimic relations between words. By hyponymy is meant a semantic relationship of inclusion. For example, vehicle includes car, truck, bus and so on; oak implies tree. Thus the hyponymic relationship may be viewed as the hierarchical relationship between the meaning of the general and the individual terms.

The general term, e.g. vehicle, tree, is referred to as the classifier and serves to describe the lexico-semantic group.

The individual terms contain or entail the meaning of the general term in addition to their individual meanings which distinguish them from each other.

In such hierarchical structures certain words may be both classifiers and members of the groups. This may be illustrated by the following hyponymic structure:

The more specific term is called hyponym of the more general. And the more general term is called the hyperonym or the classifier.

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