Learn English – How to refer to a hyponym that is the same word as the hypernym

dialectshypernymsword-choice

What word (or how do you phrase things) do you use when the ostensible word for the class is the same as the word for a subset of the class?

For example, in the United States, there are many brands of sugared, carbonated soft drink that one can buy: Coca-Cola (or Coke), Pepsi, RC Cola, Sprite, 7-Up, A&W or Mug Root Beer, etc). The first two are kinds of 'coke' or 'cola' (but no one says 'cola').

But in some parts of the US (namely the south), one asks for any type of such drink as 'coke'. How does one then ask for the particular kind of 'coke' that is 'Coke' (pronounced the same)? Does one reduplicate and say a 'Coke coke', does one repeat with emphasis (or without), does one use a different word like 'coca-cola' (co-cola), or what?

The (perceived) difficulty (surely those in the South are able to get the drink they want somehow) isn't limited to there. Where the drink is called 'soda', if you ask for a 'coke', you'll still sometimes have the choice among Coca-Cola, Pepsi, etc. "Can I have a Coke?" the response might be "Is Pepsi OK?". "Sure, Pepsi, Coke, whatever." You don't use 'cola', you just ask for the particular kind and hope the listener will help differentiate.

  • Given these multiple strategies for disambiguating, what do you do say to get a 'Coke' in the southern US?
  • are there any other examples of a hypernym being the same as the hyponym, and so creating a disambiguation problem?

Best Answer

According to "The Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics", these are autohyponyms. The example they use says:

...for example, a cow contrasts with a horse at one level, but at a lower level it contrasts with bull (in effect, 'a cow is a kind of cow').

Similarly, the term peacock is often used to refer to the entire family of birds, rather than calling them peafowl (and hence peahen and peachick).

I myself like a cup of coffee. No, not a mocha or a latte, just a plain coffee please.

In "Pride and Prejudice", Jane Bennet is often referred to as Miss Bennet, being the eldest of the girls. She is of course one of the Miss Bennets, but when this is used in the singular, it refers to her specifically rather than to any of her sisters.

There is a brand of fashion store called Somewhere, with many outlets which are somewhere.

While Levi's are best known for their Levi's, they also sell t-shirts and jackets in addition to their jeans.

As a final example, I offer you the word word, which is also an autonym. All autonyms are subsets of one in the set which they describe.

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