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Is there a hypernym for convergence and divergence? It might also encompass similar terms, like separation and reunion.

Oscillations can be thought of as a succession of convergence and divergence, but I can't find an umbrella term for these antonyms.

syre
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I think Stuart F has it right: the word you might be looking for is simply change, given that a thing can't both diverge and converge at the same time (if you ignore phenomena like quantum mechanics). But change isn't really as "scientific- or philosophical-sounding" as we might like.

If we look again at the meaning of convergence v. divergence, and even oscillation as you say, what we're talking about is changes in states: transitions. The root word trans- has historical meanings of being "across" from or "beyond" which something might currently stand or a position something might currently exist at.

So, transition (singular, covering the act of transitioning) or transitions (plural, covering the particular instances of one transitioning or another) might be the word you're looking for, or even the other words we find with the same root:

  • Transduction (i.e. transition of energy into one form from another)
  • Translation (i.e. transition of meaning in one language to meaning in another)
  • Transformation (i.e transition of the nature, condition, or function of something)
  • Etc.

Alternatively, if we abandon the above root word for a moment, we might explore other synonyms of change itself:

  • Alteration (i.e. making different)
  • Evolution (i.e. process of gradual change in a system, alluding to the rate of change, an aspect we haven't considered here)
  • Progression (i.e. moving from one thing to another)
  • Variation (i.e. a partial change in the form/state/quality of one thing to another, alluding to more complex systems where things can maybe diverge in one way and converge in another)
  • Conversion (i.e. to change from one use/function/purpose to another)
  • Modulation (i.e. to move from one key/tonality to another, as in a chord progression)
  • Etc.

I think progression might be a stronger word, as to me it implies a change over time, considering how others on StackExchange refer to convergence/divergence as asymptotic behavior - or when phenomena approaches as time is left unbounded. Evolution might a form of slow progression. I can't think of a word for fast progression, but adjectives that come to mind like sudden, immediate, and imminent allude to neologisms like immediation, immination, momentation, etc.

Do any of the above come close to what you were thinking? Do some words hold a stronger meaning over others?

Nick Schrombeck
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  • Come to think of it, if we consider convergence as a number, say, 0, and divergence as, say, 1, and the possibility of a phenomena to oscillate between both states, 0 and 1, then to me this leads me to the idea of modes and poles that you would consider in frequency analysis in math. Words associated with those concepts might be modulation, polarization, etc. Polarization is an interesting term in that it can help explain when things are tending towards convergence/divergence by being polarized towards those extremes. – Nick Schrombeck Apr 22 '23 at 19:16
  • Transversion (i.e. changing from prose literature to poetry and poetry to prose) seems like an even stronger contender than the above. I came to this topic by considering the electric grid, so this word might cover collection (convergence) and distribution (divergence) systems at the same time, and fits in nicely with other terms native to that industry: transmission, transformation (i.e. a transformer), etc. Transduction, as described above, even covers the generation/utilization side. – Nick Schrombeck Apr 22 '23 at 19:55
  • Change and your other suggestions might be too broad as the reference to the relative positions of multiple objects is lost. On reflection, oscillation also lacks that reference. – syre Apr 24 '23 at 09:00