Subordinate level category

Subordinate level categories are found at the bottom of folk taxonomies and diplay a low degree of class inclusion and a low degree of generality.

As members of basic level categories, subordinate level categories are higly specific. They provide identifiable and detailed gestalts with highly detailed configurations of individuating properties.

Often, the linguistic labels for subordinate categories are polymorphemic composite forms, such as compound nouns.

Subordinate categories have the following characteristics

i) They are less good than basic level categories because although they have a high mutual resemblance, they have a low distinctiveness from members of neighboring concepts

ii) They are less informative relative to their immediate hyperonymic category

iii) As stated above they are frequently polymorphic