shawl vs prayer shawl

shawl and prayer shawl both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
shawl	Yes	No	No	No
prayer shawl	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, prayer shawl is a hyponym of shawl; that is, prayer shawl is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than shawl:

shawl: cloak consisting of an oblong piece of cloth used to cover the head and shoulders
prayer shawl: (Judaism) a shawl with a ritually knotted fringe at each corner; worn by Jews at morning prayer

Other hyponyms of shawl include tallis, tallith, sarape, serape.

shawl (noun)	prayer shawl (noun)
cloak consisting of an oblong piece of cloth used to cover the head and shoulders	(Judaism) a shawl with a ritually knotted fringe at each corner; worn by Jews at morning prayer