Some Types of Relationships

The more practice you have working on analogy problems, the more quickly you’ll recognize some of the common relationships. Some relationships are given below. There are many other possibilities as well.

CLASSIFICATIONS: sorts, kinds, general to specific, specific to general, thing to quality or characteristic, opposites, degree, and so on.

A broad category is paired with a narrower category.

A person is paired with a characteristic.

The general is paired with the specific.

A word is paired with a synonym of itself.

A word is paired with an antonym of itself.

A word is paired with a definition of itself.

A male is paired with a female.

A family relationship is paired with a similar family relationship.

A virtue is paired with a failing.

An element is paired with a greater degree.

A lesser degree is paired with a greater degree.

The plural is paired with the singular.

STRUCTURALS: part to whole, whole to part, part to part, and so on.

A part is paired with a whole.

A whole is paired with a part.

OPERATIONALS: time sequence, operations, stages, phases, beginning to ending, before to after, and so on.

One element of time is paired with another element of time.

A time-sequence relationship is expressed.

A complete operation is paired with a stage.

OVERLAPPING: Many analogies will overlap into more than one of the preceding basic types and will have to be analyzed by their purpose, use, cause-andeffect relationship, and so on.

A user is paired with his or her tool.

A creator is paired with a creation.

A cause is paired with its effect.

A person is paired with his/her profession.

An instrument is paired with a function it performs.

A symbol is paired with an institution.

A reward is paired with an action.

An object is paired with an obstacle that hinders it.

Something is paired with a need that it satisfies.

Something is paired with its natural medium.

Something is paired with something else that can operate it.

An object is paired with the material of which it is made.

NOTE: Many of these relationships can be presented in a negative rather than a positive sequence. For example, instead of a pair of words denoting an effect and its cause, you might encounter the negation of this relationship, an effect coupled with something that cannot be its cause. For example:

“Happiness is not the effect of depression in the same way as peacefulness is not the effect of stress.” The relationship here may be represented as EFFECT : (-)CAUSE, using the minus sign to indicate the negative element in the pair.