Umbrella term

Under a generic term, also an umbrella term, one understands a concept which subsumes a number of other words in their meaning, or calling classified ( in linguistics also called hypernym ). Sometimes the term generic term is used synonymously for the word Hypernym / collective term.

• Vehicle is the generic term for the words car, bike, tram and trucks.
• Clothing is the generic term for the words sweater, pants, blouse, shirt and underpants.
• Apostle is the generic term for the biblical characters Simon Peter, John, Philip, Thomas and Judas Iscariot

The search for suitable preamble is often part of intelligence tests or aptitude tests.

Generic term in the logic

Within the logic can be two entirely different meanings of the word are different " preamble ". First called " preamble " a term that falls under the " sub-concepts ", secondly, it is in is a terminus of the syllogistic.

Generic term in the term hierarchy

It refers to a term as a generic term (or genus ) when " sub-concepts ": fall (or species) under him. For example, fall under the heading of " living things " under the terms " man" and " animal ". Since all humans and animals " creatures " fall under the concept, they say, he has a larger circumference than term about the term "man", falls under the only all people, but not the animals.

Already Plato has established concept hierarchies using his method of Dihairesis and rules specified by which these are to be placed. If you mark the subordination of the terms by connecting lines, the result is a pyramid- like scheme. A history of philosophy example is the concept of hierarchy in the form of the Tree of Porphyry.

The fact that a ( sub) term "falls" under a ( broad) term is, strictly from the " traps" of an object under a concept to distinguish Otherwise it comes to false conclusions.

• For example, all individuals fall under the term [ man ] and hence the term [ beings ], the term [ man ] but is not a living

• Example: For more accurate expression is "rare" not a property of an object, but a predicate that belongs only to words (ie albino is not rare, but the term [ albino ] is rarely the case ( " instantiated " ) ).

First Peano has made this symbolic clearly: The element - His is expressed by a ε, the containment of sub- terms in the preambles in Peano with "C".

Preamble in the syllogistic

As a generic term (Latin maior terminus ) that term is referred to in the syllogism in logic which occurs in the final sentence as a predicate.

Example:

Generic term in linguistics

In the semantics we speak instead of the preamble also of hypernym.