Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics
A two-place relation R for which, with regard to any objects x and y, it is true: R(x, y)→R(y, x). This is the case, for example, for the relation of ‘being married’: if x is married to y, then y is also married to x.
If both pairs in the relation cannot be reversed in any case, then the relation is not symmetrical: for example, x is the sister of y cannot be reversed to y is the sister of x, if y=[+male]. A relation R is asymmetric, if there are not two objects x and y for which both R(x, y) as well as R(y, x) is the case; for example, this is the case in the relation ‘is the daughter of.’
References
formal logic, set theory
symphysical field of language [Grk sýmphysis ‘growing together’]
Term used by K.Bühler to designate the way in which inherently context-free utterances are ‘affixed to the things’ they name, e.g. trademarks on goods, book titles, texts on monuments, and signposts.
References
axiomatics of linguistics
This is the complete article, containing 170 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page).
View More Summaries on Symmetric relation
