urgent

hi all nice and kind pals

really I have such a confusing Q in linguistics and I hope U all can help me ..

what's the difference between hyponymy and prototype

I know that hyponymy is a word that contains the meaning of another word

and prototype is typical member of the extension of a referring expression

my Q is about this example:

oak tree,,oak  could be both a hyponym and a prototype ...

how it could be both ...??

is there any difference ?

it's a little ambigious ..so please help me to clarify the difference?

 

thanx

 

 

Because I need this information today

tomorrow will be my exam

..it's too urgent

 

please if it's confusing for you all ..just tell me and I'll look for someone helps me

in the whole world

I think I have to be in touch with chomskey as soon as possible

 

.
Your language is fine, Smoothy. No one has taken offense.  However, your question is not an easy one, so members have perhaps been hesitant to try to answer it.

I would say that a prototype is usually also the general word (hyperonym) of a hyponymous relationship.  From internet sources:


Hyponymy: the semantic relation between a more specific word and a more general word. Dog is a hyponym of animal, because all dogs are also animals, but not vice versa.

Prototype: The prototype of any category is the member or set of members of a category that best represents the category as a whole.  Not everything fits perfectly in a category. Categories are defined by an intersection of properties that make up their members. Members that have all of the properties are the prototype members. Those that contain some, but not all, of the properties are less prototypical.  Prototypical nouns embody extremely and obviously time-stable concepts. ‘Rock’ and ‘tree’ are prototypical nouns.

So, tree is the prototype of elm, maple and willow, and tree is also the hyperonym of elm, etc.