Maryam Ramezankhani
Abstract
The present paper aimed at discussing the possibility of formalizing the sense relation of hyponymy. In order to do so, the research applied mathematical tools borrowed from set theory and algebra. Firstly, it went over the definitions of the sense relation in question presented in linguistic dictionaries ...
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The present paper aimed at discussing the possibility of formalizing the sense relation of hyponymy. In order to do so, the research applied mathematical tools borrowed from set theory and algebra. Firstly, it went over the definitions of the sense relation in question presented in linguistic dictionaries and also semantics’ text books. The definitions show that hyponymy between two words might be based on type, time or both. That is an important feature of hyponymy which the present research takes into account while trying to introduce a formal translation. Next, the paper presented a formal expression corresponding the sense relation of hyponymy, mostly using the fundamental concepts from set theory such a subset, conjunction, disjunction, etc. Finally, the efficiency and correctness of the introduced formal translations were examined using some examples of natural language which is Farsi in this case. The expression proved to be consistent with what we expect according to the way hyponymy works in natural language.
