What is hyperonym?

What Does hyperonym Mean

In order to know the meaning of the hyperonym term that concerns us, it is necessary, first of all, to proceed to discover its etymological origin. In this case, we can establish that it is the result of the sum of two lexical components, one from Greek and the other from Latin:

-The word “hyper” comes from Greek and we can establish that it means “above” or “above”.

-The Latin element "onymus" which, in turn, emanates from the Greek "onymos".

Likewise, we cannot ignore that hyperonym is a technicality that was shaped within the scope of Structural Semantics at the beginning of the 20th century.
The concept of hyperonym is used in the field of linguistics to name the term whose meaning is present in the meaning of other words . It is a word that can be used to refer to the reality that names another more specific concept.
While the meaning of the hyperonym is included in another word, the hyponym is the term whose meaning encompasses that of another. Just as "mammal" is a hyperonym of "dog" , "dog" is a hyponym of "mammal" .

Other examples that we can use to understand what a hyperonym is are the following:

-Clothing is the hyperonym of skirt, shirt, dress, pants, T-shirt, top or jacket.

-House is the hyperonym of house, flat, chalet, loft or apartment.

-Furniture is the hyperonym of chair, table, sideboard, sofa, armchair or table.

-Coffee is the hyperonym of decaffeinated, espresso, cappuccino or cut.

-Reptile comes to be the hyperonym of alligator, turtle, lizard, chameleon, crocodile, iguana, Komodo Dragon or cobra, for example.
All the semantic features of the hyperonym are present in its hyponym. In contrast, the hyponym has semantic features that allow it to differentiate itself from the hyperonym. Returning to the previous example , "mammal" is hyperonym of "dog" since all the characteristics of "mammals" are present in "dogs" or, in other words, all "dogs" are "mammals" . In the definition of "dog" , on the contrary, there are traits that do not correspond to all "mammals" : while all "dogs" are "mammals", not all "mammals" are "dogs . "
It is common for hyperonyms to be used to avoid repeating words in a text . In this way, the following paragraph can be written: “He was surprised to find a dog in the middle of the desert. He wondered how the animal would have gotten there, away from it all. Where could this mammal that seemed so healthy and happy have gotten food? If he could solve the dilemma, perhaps he could be saved . "
Hyperonyms, in short, are general words that encompass in their meaning that of other more specific ones. "Furniture" , to cite another case, is a hyperonym of "table" , "closet" and "bed" .

In addition to all the above, we can highlight other information of interest in this regard. We are referring to, for example, that words that are hyponymic can also be hyperonymous. An example would be fruit, which is a word that acts as a hyponym for food and which, at the same time, can be a hyperonym for banana, strawberry, orange, pear, apple, tangerine, kiwi or peach.

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