incompatibility (n.)

A term used in SEMANTICS as part of the study of the SENSE relations between LEXICAL ITEMS. It refers to sets of items where the choice of one item excludes the use of all the other items from that set (unless there is to be a contradiction). Colour terms provide a well-studied example: to say the car is red excludes the car is green/blue, etc. – and the set of items which contrast in this way are said to be incompatible. Incompatibility has been less investigated than other sense relations (such as ANTONYMY and SYNONYMY), but some linguists have pointed to the existence of different types of many-member (as opposed to binary) sets, such as ranks (e.g. military), scales (e.g. value judgements) and cycles (e.g. seasons).