Definition and Examples of Meronyms and Holonyms

In semantics, a  meronym is a word that denotes a constituent part or a member of something. For example, apple is a meronym of apple tree (sometimes written as appleapple tree). This part-to-whole relationship is called meronymy. Adjective: meronymous. Meronymy is not just a single relation but a bundle of different part-to-whole relationships. The opposite of a meronym is a holonym—the name of the whole of which the meronym is a part. Appletree is a holonym of apple (apple treeapple). The whole-to-part relationship is called holonymy. Adjective: holonymous. EtymologyFrom the Greek, part name Examples and Observations [I]n one context finger is an appropriate meronym of hand, and in other cases flesh is an appropriate meronym of hand. Finger and flesh, however, are not co-meronyms of hand, since different relational criteria (functional part versus material) are applied in each case.(M. Lynne Murphy, Semantic Relations and the Lexicon: Antonymy, Synonymy and Other Paradigms. Cambridge University  Press, 2003)​ Types of Meronym Relationships At one level meronyms can be divided into two types:  necessary and optional (Lyons 1977), otherwise called canonical and facilitative (Cruse, 1986). An example of a necessary meronymy is eyeface. Having an eye is a necessary condition of a well-formed face, and even if it is removed, an eye is still a face part. Optional meronymy includes examples like cushionchair—there are chairs without cushions and cushions that exist independently of chairs. (Concise Encyclopedia of Semantics, ed. by  Keith Allan. Elsevier, 2009)Meronymy is a term used to describe a part-whole relationship between lexical items. Thus cover and page are meronyms of book. . . .Meronyms vary . . . in how necessary the part is to the whole. Some are necessary for normal examples, for example, nose as a meronym of face; others are usual but not obligatory, like collar as a meronym of shirt; still, others are optional like cellar for house.(John I. Saeed, Semantics, 2nd ed. Wiley-Blackwell, 2003)In many ways, meronymy is significantly more complicated than hyponymy. The Wordnet databases specify three types of meronym relationships:(Jon Orwant, Games, Diversions, and Perl Culture. OReilly Associates, 2003) Part meronym: a tire is part of a carMember meronym: a car is a member of a traffic jamSubstance (stuff) meronym: a wheel is made from rubber​ Synecdoche and Meronym/Holonymy The two commonly  acknowledged variants of synecdoche, part for the whole (and vice versa) and genus for species (and vice versa), find their correspondence in the linguistic concepts of meronymy/holonymy and hyponymy/hypernymy. A meronym denotes a word or other element that together with other elements constitutes a whole. Thus, bark, leaf, and branch are meronyms of the holonym tree. A hyponym, on the other hand, denotes a word that belongs to a subset whose elements are collectively summarized by a hypernym. Thus, tree, flower, bush are hyponyms of the hypernym plant.  A first observation to be made here  is that these two concepts describe relationships on different levels: meronymy/holonymy describes a relationship between  elements of material objects.  It is the referential object leaf  which in extralingual reality  forms a part of the whole tree. Hyponymy/hypernymy, by contrast,  refers to a relationship between concepts. Flowers and trees are jointly classif ied as plants. but in extralingual reality, there is no plant that consists of flowers and trees.  In other words, the first relationship is extralingual, the second relationship is conceptual. (Sebastian Matzner,  Rethinking Metonymy: Literary Theory and Poetic Practice From Pindar to Jakobson. Oxford University Press,  2016)