Lexical plurals through meronymy and hyperonymy

Abstract

This study uses meronymy and hyperonymy as semantic criteria applied to French collective nouns (CollNs) and lexical plural nouns (LPNs) in the issue of noun classification. After having outlined the semantic properties of CollNs and explained their links with meronymy and hyperonymy, LPNs are tested in different glosses related to these two relationships. These tests outline that CollNs and LPNs form two kinds of nouns that could hardly converge. They also enlighten the way the different subclasses of LPNs match with meronymy and hyperonymy.