Relation similarity as a function of agreement between relation elements

People perceive that semantic relations vary in similarity to each other. For example, when subjects sorted pairs representing 31 relations into groups of similar relations, the sorting frequencies indicated that the subjects grouped together relations that had similar definitions (Chaffin & Herrmann, 1984). Consequently, it was hypothesized that people judge the similarity between relations on the basis of agreement in the elements that, according to linguistic theory, make up these relations. To test this hypothesis, the present research correlated the sorting frequencies from the Chaffin and Herrmann study with estimates of relation similarity derived from relation element agreement. A significant correlation (r = 707) was found between the two variables, indicating that perceptions of relation similarity are derived from the amount of agreement between relations in their relation elements.