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A Dynamic View on Sense Relations: Understanding Antonymy and Complementarity

Explore the complexities of opposites and contrasts in language, from complementaries to antonyms and reversives. Delve into linguistic categories and gradable properties. Discover the nuances between terms like clean:dirty and small:tiny.

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A Dynamic View on Sense Relations: Understanding Antonymy and Complementarity

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  1. Cognitive LinguisticsCroft & Cruse 7 A dynamic construal approach to sense relations II: Antonymy and complementarity

  2. 7.1.1 Aspects of the construal of oppositeness • Oppositeness assumes that there are two contrary values, but construals are usually involved and there are also non-opposite contrasts (tea vs. coffee)

  3. 7.1.2 Main varieties of opposite • Complementaries • Antonyms • Reversives

  4. 7.1.2 Main varieties of opposite • Complementaries – bisect a domain into two subdomains (dead:alive, open:shut) • Antonyms – gradable divergences from a reference value (long:short) • Reversives – changes in opposite directions between two states (rise:fall) This chapter will focus on the first two.

  5. 7.1.3 Goodness-of-exemplar in opposites • Male:female is better than convent:monastery (“purity” of comparison) • Large:small is better than large:tiny (symmetry of comparison) • Clean:dirty is better than clean:mucky (keeping terms in same register) Discussion – what do these effects tell us about the structure of linguistic categories?

  6. 7.2.1 Gradable vs. non-gradable construal of properties • Some properties are gradable (antonyms): long:short • Some properties are not gradable (complementaries): married:single (though construal can coerce gradability) • Some properties are easily construed as both: clean:dirty What is essential is what DOMAINS the terms are profiled against.

  7. 7.3.1 A survey of antonym types • Monoscalar: short:long are on the one scale of LENGTH • Biscalar: hot:cold are on the scales of HOTNESS vs. COLDNESS • And there are other, more complicated relationships Discussion: Would the scales be the same in all languages?

  8. 7.3.2.1 Subs, supras, and the relative scale • The terms of antonyms are not always equally privileged. • What’s its length (not *shortness)? Discussion – again, what does this tell us about category structure?

  9. 7.3.3 Bi-scalar systems • Antonyms can be • Equipollent, like hot:cold (but there are relatively few equipollent pairs in English) • Overlapping, like good:bad, where the status of the two terms differs

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