Antonyms. Definition. Morphological and semantic classifications of antonyms.

Antonymy is a type of paradigmatic relations based on polarity of meaning.

Antonyms (Gr. antí ‘against,’ ónyma ‘name’) are two or more words of the same language belonging to the same part of speech and to the same semantic field, identical in style and nearly identical in distribution, associated and often used together so that their denotative meanings render contrary or contradictory notions.

For the analysis of the semantic continuum where synonyms and antonyms interplay, one can use the ‘semiotic square’ model suggested by Algirdas Greimas, a Lithuanian-born linguist and semiotician who laid the foundations for the Paris School of Semiotics and is considered, along with Roland Barthes, the most prominent of the French semioticians.

According to the character of semantic opposition:

Antonyms proper (contrary antonyms) are antonyms which possess the following characteristics:

-they are gradable, i.e. there are some intermediate units between the most distant members of a set, e.g. cold – cool – tepid – warm – hot; never – seldom – sometimes – often – always;

-they are capable of comparison, e.g. good – better – best vs. bad – worse – worst;

-they can be modified by such intensifiers as very, slightly, extremely, fairly, rather etc., e.g. huge – very big – BIG – quite big – medium-sized – quite small – SMALL – very small – tiny;

-they do not deny one another, e.g. She is not beautiful ≠ She is ugly;

-they refer not to independent absolute qualities but to some implicit norm, e.g. a big mouse vs a small elephant.

Contradictory antonyms (complementary antonyms) are mutually opposed (exclusive) and deny one another, e.g. male – female; married – single; asleep – awake; same – different. Their features:

-not gradable;

-truly represent oppositeness of meaning;

-cannot be used in the comparative or superlative degree;

-the denial of one member of such antonymic opposition always implies the assertion of the other, e.g. not dead – alive.

Conversive antonyms (conversives) are words which denote one and the same situation as viewed from different points of view, with a reversal of the order of participants and their roles, e.g. husband – wife; teacher – pupil; to buy – to sell; to lend – to borrow; to precede – to follow. These antonyms are mutually dependent on each other and one item presupposes the other.

Vectorial antonyms (directional antonyms) are words denoting differently directed actions, features, e.g. to rise – to fall; to arrive – to depart; to marry – to divorce; to learn – to forget; to appear – to disappear.

Morphological classification of antonyms by V. N. Komissarov (Dictionary of English Antonyms):

root antonyms (absolute antonyms) are antonyms having different roots, e.g. clean – dirty; late – early; day – night;

derivational antonyms are antonyms having the same root but different affixes, e.g. to fasten – to unfasten; flexible – inflexible; useful – useless.

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