Meronymy

Page 1

Meronymy is a word that denotes part of a whole, as fender is to car, week is to month, head is to body, branch is to tree, binding is to book.

"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 eye<face. 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 cushion<chair—there are chairs without cushions and cushions that exist independently of chairs."