ANTONYMS

1. ANTONYMS

2. definition of antonyms • V.N. Komissarov’s theory on antonyms • classification of antonyms • conversives

3. Antonyms • belong to the same part speech • belong to the same semantic field • identical in style • nearly identical in distribution • denotational meanings render contradictory or contrary notions • do not differ stylistically, in emotional colouring

4. Contradictory or Contrary Notions • contradictory notions – mutually opposed and denying one another e.g. alive – ‘not dead’ impatient – ‘not patient’ • contrary notions – mutually opposed but they are gradable e.g. old – middle-aged – young hot - warm – cool - cold

5. Antonyms (Ginzburg R.S.) • words different in sound-form • characterized by semantic polarity of denotational meaning • characterized by interchangeability in some contexts

6. Semantic Polarity • presence of some common semantic components in the denotational meaning e.g. ashamed – ‘feeling unhappy or troubled’ proud – ‘feeling of happiness or assurance’

7. Antonyms • usually appear in pairs – antonymic pair • a polysemantic word may have an antonym for each of its meanings e.g. dull – interesting, amusing, entertaining dull – clever, bright, capable dull - active

8. Distribution of antonyms among parts of speech • adjectives e.g. wide – narrow, strong – weak • verbs e.g. to lose – to find • nouns e.g. friend - enemy

9. Distribution of antonyms among parts of speech • adverbs • adverbs derived from adjectives e.g. warmly – coldly, loudly – softly • adverbs proper e.g. now – then, here – there • set expressions e.g. by accident - on purpose

10. V. N. Kommissarov’s theory on antonyms • two words shall be considered antonymous if they are regularly contrasted in actual speech • if the contrast in their meanings is proved by definite types of contextual co-occurrence (typical contexts)

11. Typical Contexts • A and (or) B = all e.g. If you have obeyed all the rules good or bad • not A but (on the contrary) B e.g. He was alive, not dead.

12. Typical Contexts • A or B e.g. You will see if you were right or wrong. • X is A, and Y, on the contrary B e.g. The whole was big, oneself was little

13. Criteria for distinguishing antonyms (by V.N. Komissarov) • regular and frequent co-occurrence in typical contexts • the possibility of substitution and identical lexical valency

14. Identical Contexts • e.g. There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us. • e.g. Where most I Iost, there most I won.

15. Identical Lexical Valency • valency – power to combine with different words e.g. hot ‘angry, exited’ anger, resentment, cold scorn (unpleasant emotions)

16. Classification of Antonyms • absolute or root antonyms (contrary notions) e.g. to love – to hate

17. Classification of Antonyms 2.derivational antonyms (express contradictory notions) • formed with negative prefixes (un-, non-, dis-) e.g. to please – to displease • antonymous suffixes –ful and –less e.g. painful - painless

18. R.S. Ginzburg’s Classification • contradictories – to use one of the words of this pair is to contradict the other. To use NOT before one of them means to make them semantically equivalent e.g. single - married

19. R.S. Ginzburg’s Classification • contraries – admit the possibility of some intermediate members which are also antonymic e.g. cold - hot cool - warm

20. I.V. Arnold’s Classification • antonyms proper – the semantic polarity is relative, the opposition is gradual, it may have several elements characterized by different degrees of the same properties. They always imply comparison e.g. large - small

21. I.V. Arnold’s Classification • complementarity antonyms – form binory opposition. The denial of one member implies the assertion of the other e.g. male - female

22. Conversives • denote one and the same referent viewed from different viewpoints: a) viewpoint of a subject b) viewpoint of an object e.g. to sell – to buy, left – right, husband – wife

23. Conversives • the substitution of a conversive does not change the meaning of a sentence if it is combined with morphological and syntactical changes e.g. He gives her flowers. She receives flowers from him