Antonyms In English

1.

1. Semantic contrast and antonymy
2. Definition and Characteristic Features of
Antonyms
3. Contextual Approach to the Study of
Antonyms.
4. Classification of Antonyms.
5. Conversives.

2.

Semantic contrast or semantic polarity
presupposes the presence of some common
semantic component in the denotational
meanings of the words: hot – cold (temperature).
The semantic relations of this type are called
antonymy.
Until recently antonymy was not universally
accepted as a linguistic problem.
The opposition within the antonymic pair was
regarded as logical with no reflection in the
semantic structure of the words.

3.

Antonyms are defined as two words of the
same language belonging to the same part of
speech, identical in style, nearly identical in
distribution, associated and used together
because their meanings render contrary or
contradictory notions (I.V. Arnold).
Antonyms are words different in sound-form
characterized by different types of semantic
contrast in the denotational meanings and
interchageable at least in some contexts (R.S.
Ginzburg)

4.

Antonymy in general shares many features
typical of synonymy. Together they represent
the most expressive means of the language.
A polysemantic word may have antonyms for
each of its meanings. E.g. an adjective dull
has the following antonyms: an interesting
book, a clever student, an active person.
Some of the meanings may have no
antonyms.

5.

Antonyms form only binary oppositions the
distinctive feature of which is semantic
polarity, its basis is co-occurrence in typical
contexts combined with approximate
sameness of distribution and stylistic or
emotional equivalence: e.g. to love- to hate,
early-late.
The opposition in these examples is obvious,
each component of the pair means the
opposite of the other. Such pairs are called
antonymic pairs.

6.

Antonyms are not evenly distributed among parts of speech.
Most antonyms are adjectives because qualitative and
quantitative characteristics are easily compared and
contrasted: high – low, wide – narrow, soft – loud.
Verbal pairs are fewer in number: to lose – to find, to love – to
hate.
Nouns are not rich in antonyms either: joy – grief, love –
hatred.
Antonymic adverbs may be of two types: adverbs derived
from adjectives: warmly – coldly, loudly – softly.
Adverbs proper: now – then, here – there. Set expressions
may also form antonymic pairs: by accident – on purpose.

7.

V.N.Komissarov has done much in the study of
antonyms.
He worked out the contextual approach to the
problem.
According to it, two words are considered
antonymous if they are regularly contrasted in actual
speech, i.e. if the contrast in their meanings is proved
by the definite type of the contextual co-occurrence.
Absolute antonyms are words that are regularly
contrasted as homogeneous sentence members
connected by copulative, disjunctive or adversative
conjunctions or identically used in parallel
constructions, in certain typical configurations which
are called typical contexts.

8.

Typical context [ A and B is all]: She watches
all the TV programs, dull and interesting.
Typical context [not A but B]: He is not active
but dull.
Typical context [ A or B]: You will see if you
are right or wrong.
Typical context [ x is A, y is B]:The book is
interesting but the film is dull.
Another
important criterion suggested by
V.N.Komissarov
is
the
possibility
of
substitution and identical lexical valency.

9.

The possibility of identical contexts is seen in the
antithesis: Where most of all I lost there most of all I
won.
Antonymy of two words may be restricted by their
valency, i.e. their power to combine with different
words:
A tall building – a low building, a tall man – a short
man; an old house – a new house, an old man – a
young man.
Unlike synonyms antonyms do not differ in style,
emotional coloring and distribution.
They are interchangeable at least in some contexts.
In a context where one member of the pair is used, it
is as a rule interchangeable with another member: a
wet towel – a dry towel.

10.

The number of antonymic opposition may be
marked and unmarked. The unmarked
member is widely used and can include the
referents of the marked member but not vice
versa.
This proves that their meanings have some
components in common.
In the pair old – young the unmarked member
is old.

11.

Traditionally antonyms are classified into :
A) absolute, words of different roots: large –
small, right – wrong
B) derivational, words of the same root but
having negative affixes: pleasant –
unpleasant, useful – useless.
Many linguists kept to this classification.
Others study absolute antonyms in more
details and a number of subclasses of them.

12.

R.S. Ginzburg follows Webster in her classification:
A) contradictories, words that represent the type of
semantic relations that exist in pairs like single –
married. To use one word of the pair is to
contradict another. To use not before one of them
is to make them semantically equal: not single –
married, single – not married.
B) contraries, words that admit the possibility of
some intermediate members: cold – hot, the
intermediate members may be: cool – warm.

13.

) Incompatibles, words with the
common component of meaning, it is
the relation of exclusion, as the
reverse of hyponymy: morning – not
evening, not night, not afternoon. The
negation of one member excludes the
possibility of other words of this set.
This relation may be observed
between color terms: red – not black,
blue, yellow, brown.
С

14.

a) Antonyms proper, words the semantic polarity
in which is relative, the opposition is gradual, it
may embrace several elements characterized by
different degrees of the same property. They
always imply comparison. The comparison is
clear from the context: large – small are polar
degrees of the same notion, i.e. size;
B) complementarity, words that form a binary
opposition, it may have only two members, the
denial of one member of the opposition implies
the assertion of the other: not male – female.

15.

Apart from antonyms there are the so-called
conversives, which are often mixed with
antonyms.
Conversives denote one and the same
referent as viewed from different points of
view, that of the subject and that of the
object: buy – sell, give – receive, cause –
suffer.
Their interchangeability and contextual
behaviour are specific.

16.

The substitution of a conversive does not change
the meaning of a sentence if it is combined with
the appropriate regular morphological and
syntactical changes and selection of appropriate
prepositions:
He gave her flowers – She received flowers from
him.
The English language is rich in antonyms. The
diachronic and synchronic study of this linguistic
phenomenon reveals the systematic character of
the English vocabulary being one of the most
important semantic relations between words in
English.