An empirical taxonomy of part-whole relations: Effects of part-whole relation type on relation identification

A taxonomy of part-whole (meronym) relations was developed (Experiment 1). Subjects sorted examples of relations and named each relation with a part-term, e.g. component, member, portion The resulting empirical taxonomy distinguished three major types of meronymy: part-whole (cup-handle), stuff (cup-china), and phase (growing up-adolescence). The part-whole relations were further subdivided into eight types: integral object-component (car-wheel), event-feature (circus-trapeze act), topological part-area (room-corner), collection-member (forest-tree), area-place (desert-oasis), time-occasion (February-Valentine's Day), measure-unit (mile-yard) and mass-portion (pie-slice). Relations adjacent in the taxonomy tended to be named with the same part-term. In Experiment 2 subjects made yes/no decisions about word pairs in answer to the question, “Is A part of B?” Types of meronym pairs were presented in blocks Responses were slower at the start of a new block. This result indicated that the type of meronymy was identified even though the task did not require this. The term “part of” is a general term that covers a variety of more specific relations. The exact nature of the relation is instantiated by the context in which the term “part of” is used