Neither do we. What is Antonym? Examples

Even if you have already graduated from school a long time ago, it is still not too late to understand what antonyms are, including contextual ones. Antonyms are words of one part of speech with directly opposite lexical meanings, contrasting phenomena: good - evil, truth - lie, speak - remain silent, a lot - little, up - down, appear - disappear. Antonyms are pairs of words that are always based on common feature(height, weight, quality, quantity, feeling, time of day, space), but the meanings are opposite.

Now it should be extremely clear what antonym words are. However, that's not all necessary information. Proper names, numerals and pronouns do not have antonyms. However, function words can also be connected by antonymic relationships: for and against, with and without (They like to drink tea with and without sugar).

Classification of antonym words

According to their structure, antonym words are divided into:

• different roots (forward - back);
• single-root: they are formed using prefixes that are opposite in meaning (enter - exit), as well as using a prefix that is added to the original word (monopoly - antimonopoly).

Usually, antonyms include words with different roots, but some linguists also consider the following pairs of words to be antonyms: calm - restless, big - small, love - dislike. Here the antonym is formed using negative particle“not”, prefixes “demon”, “not”, etc.

From the point of view of language and speech, there are antonyms:

• linguistic (usual): they exist in the language system (loud - quiet);
• speech (occasional): arise in a certain context. They are more often found in proverbs and poetry.

So, what are contextual antonyms? Contextual antonyms are words that are contrasted in a specific context. This phenomenon is of an individual author’s nature: wolves and sheep (as you understand, the polarity of the meanings of these words is not fixed in the language). A writer can discover the opposite qualities of certain concepts and contrast them in speech: sunlight- moonlight, one year - a whole life, not a mother, but a daughter. The opposition of such concepts is not reproduced in language. These are occasional (contextual, speech) antonyms.

Antonyms from the point of view of action are:

• proportionate: indicate action and reaction (getting rich - getting poor, getting up - going to bed);
• disproportionate: in a broad sense they denote action and lack of action (light - don’t light, think - change your mind).

Polysemantic words and their antonyms

In different meanings, a polysemantic word can have different antonyms.

For example: fresh bread - stale bread, fresh thought - hackneyed thought, fresh evening - stuffy evening, etc.

Antithesis

Antonyms can serve as a means of poetic expression. This technique is called antithesis. Basically, the antithesis is characteristic of poetic and oratorical speech: “black evening, white snow" (A. A. Blok). The antithesis is also found in the titles: “Thick and Thin” (A. P. Chekhov), “Fathers and Sons” (I. S. Turgenev),

So, now you know what antonyms are, examples of these pairs of words will not be difficult for you. Remember what contextual antonyms and antithesis are.

Different in sound and spelling, having directly opposite lexical meanings: truth - lie, good - evil, speak - remain silent.

Antonyms according to the type of concepts expressed:

• contradictory correlates- such opposites that mutually complement each other to the whole, without transitional links; they are in a relation of private opposition. Examples: bad - good, lie - truth, living - dead.
• contrarian correlates- antonyms expressing polar opposites within one essence in the presence of transitional links - internal gradation; they are in a relation of gradual opposition. Examples: black (- gray -) white, old (- elderly - middle-aged -) young, large (- average -) small.
• vector correlates- antonyms expressing different directions of actions, signs, social phenomena, etc. Examples: enter - exit, descend - rise, light - extinguish, revolution - counter-revolution.
• conversions- words that describe the same situation from the point of view of different participants. Examples: buy - sell, husband - wife, teach - learn, lose - win, lose - find.
• enantiosemy- the presence of opposite meanings in the structure of a word. Examples: lend someone money - borrow money from someone, surround someone with tea - treat and not treat.
• pragmatic- words that are regularly contrasted in the practice of their use, in contexts (pragmatics - “action”). Examples: soul - body, mind - heart, earth - sky.

According to the structure, antonyms are:

• multi-rooted(forward - back);
• single-rooted- are formed using prefixes that are opposite in meaning: enter - exit, or using a prefix added to the original word (monopoly - antimonopoly).

From the point of view of language and speech, antonyms are divided into:

• linguistic(usual) - antonyms that exist in the language system (rich - poor);
• speech(occasional) - antonyms that arise in a certain context (to check the presence of this type, you need to reduce them to a language pair) - (golden - half copper, that is, expensive - cheap). They are often found in proverbs.

In terms of action, antonyms are:

• proportionate- action and reaction (get up - go to bed, get rich - get poor);
• disproportionate- action and lack of action (in a broad sense) (light - extinguish, think - change your mind).

Antonyms, or words with opposite meanings, have become the subject of linguistic analysis relatively recently, and interest in the study of Russian and Tatar antonymy is growing noticeably. This is evidenced by the emergence of a number of special linguistic studies on antonymy and dictionaries of antonyms.

Lexical units of the vocabulary of a language turn out to be closely related not only on the basis of their associative connection by similarity or contiguity as lexical-semantic variants of a polysemantic word. Most words of the language do not contain a feature capable of opposition, therefore, antonymic relationships are impossible for them, however, in figurative meaning they can acquire an antonym. Thus, in contextual antonymy, antonymic relationships between words with a direct meaning are possible, and then these pairs of words carry an emphatic load and perform a special stylistic function.

Antonyms are possible for words whose meanings contain opposite qualitative shades, but the meanings are always based on a common feature (weight, height, feeling, time of day, etc.). Also, only words belonging to the same grammatical or stylistic category can be contrasted. Consequently, words related to different parts speech or lexical levels.

Antonyms in poetry

Here we are entering August, oh,
don't go to the forest rare, and in thick,
where is Judas from the aspen tree?
hung without a murmur and moved away.
August is more tangled than a knot,
How good in captivity evil,
he has flowers under his feet,
often similar to running boards.

See also

Notes

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See what “Antonyms” are in other dictionaries:

- (from anti... and Greek onyma name), words of one part of speech with the opposite meaning, for example, truth is false, poor is rich... Modern encyclopedia

- (from anti... and Greek onyma name) words with the opposite meaning. For example: truth is a lie, poor is rich... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

ANTONYMS- (from Greek anti... – against + onoma – name). 1. Words that have opposite meanings. The basis of antonymy is the presence in the meaning of a word qualitative sign, which can increase or decrease and reach the opposite. That's why… … New dictionary methodological terms and concepts (theory and practice of language teaching)

Antonyms- (from anti... and Greek onyma name), words of one part of speech with the opposite meaning, for example “truth is a lie”, “poor rich”. ... Illustrated encyclopedic dictionary

Antonyms- (from the Greek anti – ‘against’ + onyma – ‘name’) – pairs of words of the same part of speech with opposite meanings. The psychological basis of A.’s existence is association by contrast; logical – opposite and contradictory concepts. Matching relationships... Stylistic encyclopedic dictionary of the Russian language

Antonyms- (from the Greek ἀντι against and ὄνυμα name) words of one part of speech that have opposite meanings. Depending on the type of opposition expressed (see Antonymy), antonyms are divided into corresponding classes, the main of which are: 1) antonyms, ... ... Linguistic encyclopedic dictionary

- (from Greek anti against + onyma name). Words with opposite meanings. The basis of antonymy is the presence in the meaning of a word of a qualitative attribute that can increase or decrease and reach the opposite. Therefore, there are especially many... Dictionary of linguistic terms

antonyms- (Greek anti against and onuma name) Words of the same part of speech that have opposite meanings correlating with each other; love to hate. Not all words enter into antonymic relationships. Based on the structure of the root, antonyms are distinguished: 1)… … Dictionary of linguistic terms T.V. Foal

- (from Greek anti - against and onoma - name), words, connected by relationship opposites of meaning, for example: victory - defeat, jokingly - seriously. A polysemantic word has different antonyms for different meanings: soft - callous, hard, hard. Literature and... Literary encyclopedia

Ov; pl. (singular antonym, a; m.) [from Greek. anti against and onyma name, title]. Linguistic Words that have opposite meanings (for example: true lie, poor rich, love to hate). ◁ Antonymous, oh, oh. A. dictionary. And not relationships. Aye... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary

Books

• Antonyms, Donatella Bergamino, Francesca Bignotti, Francesca Massa, Big or small? Thick or thin? Sad or happy? In this wonderful book, your child will find answers to his first questions and receive the first - and most important - knowledge about... Category: Baby's first books Series: My first knowledge Publisher:

Antonymy (student)

Antonymy

Concept of antonymy

Types of Antonyms

The connection between antonymy and polysemy and synonymy

Literature

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Concept of antonymy

Antonymy– opposite meanings linguistic units the same level of language: words, morphemes, syntactic structures [ERYA, p. 29].

Antonyms(Greek anti – 'against' and onyma‘name’) are words of the same part of speech that have opposite meanings [LES, p. 36].

poor – rich

poor - rich

poverty - wealth

get poor - get rich

morning - evening

morning - evening

pre-dawn – pre-evening

morning - evening

Antonymy presupposes the presence of qualitative sign,capable of varying and reach the opposite. In the meanings of antonyms there is obligatory general signs that bring them together, creating a basis for opposition, and signs distinctive, specific[Reformatsky, p. 101].

They enter into antonymic relationships not all words. Have no antonyms proper names, nouns with specific values(table, chair, hand, head),numerals, most pronouns(me, you, who).

Antonyms form antonymous pairs(more often) and ranks:

smart – capable – mediocre – stupid – stupid.

Types of Antonyms

Exists several classifications of antonyms:

by type of opposite,

by degree of opposite,

by consolidation in the language system,

by structure (structural).

2.1. Classification by type of opposite,expressed by antonyms

1) Gradual antonyms

Such antonyms express high-quality(counter< лат.contrarius‘opposite’) opposite. Between the extreme members of an antonymous pair there is intermediate (middle) element:

big – small –small ;

hot – warm – cool – cold ;

beautiful – … – ugly ;

top – (middle) – bottom.

The intermediate element can be supposed:

rough – Ø – gentle

Lack of a special LE in the language for an intermediate term can be compensated descriptively:

not very rude[Alefirenko, p. 223].

Additional antonyms

Antonyms of this type express contradictory(lat. contradictorius‘controversial’), or complementary(lat. complementum ‘complement’) opposite.

There is often nothing in between the extremes. The denial of one is the affirmation of the other:

Can -Not - Can= impossible,

sighted –Not - sighted= blind,

married - single,

alive - dead,

together - apart,

comply - violate.

It may be noted that in some classic examples of additional antonyms the middle elements still exist: sighted –visually impaired – half-blind - blind. However, the fundamental thing is that when negated we get the opposite member of the pair: Not - sighted= blind;Not -blind = sighted. This is not true for gradual antonyms: big – Not big ≠small ; hot – Not hot ≠ cold .

Vector antonyms

(express opposite direction actions, states, signs):

come - move away,

allow - prohibit,

ignite - extinguish,

defensive – offensive,

attack - counterattack,

ascent - descent.

Conversions

Conversion(from lat. conversio‘change, transformation’), reversal of utterance– expression of the same action or attitude in reverse directions – from one participant in the situation to another and vice versa:

WITH studentrents out exam. ↔ Teacheraccepts exam.

Towerrests on the foundation. ↔ Foundationsupports tower.

Brotherolder sisters. ↔ Sister younger brother

Salesman sells picture. ↔ Buyer buys picture.

predecessor ↔ follower.

Conversions do not form an independent class, because among them there are antonyms of previous classes. Many researchers

Not consider conversion as a type of antonymy,

but they consider antonymy one of sources conversion [LES, p. 234].

2.2. By degree of opposite stand out two class.

Full antonyms called extreme points a number of words denoting homogeneous concepts:

cold – hot,

small – big,

good - bad.

Full antonyms stylistically homogeneous.

Incomplete antonyms consider those who have

a) different shades of meaning:

cold – warm,

small - gigantic,

good - disgusting,

weak - powerful;

b) different stylistic or expressive colors:

young man(neutral) – old man(high) ,

bad(neutral) - cool(jarg.),

run(neutral) - to trudge(colloquial, exp.) .

2.3. By consolidation in the language system antonyms are divided into

linguistic(usual),

speech(contextual, occasional).

Contextual antonyms– words that are antonymous only in this context:

honey is poison,

Lilliput – Gulliver,

"Master and Worker"(Tolstoy).

They agreed:water Andstone ,

Poetry Andprose , ice Andflame

Not so different from each other(Pushkin).

Poet you may not be

Butcitizen be obliged(Nekrasov).

2.4. By structure(structural classification)

Multi-root antonyms are the largest class of words.

Cognate antonyms:

at -carry ↔at -carry (at ↔ you, vz ↔ s, s ↔ times, etc.);

literate ↔Not -competent, handsome ↔Not -Beautiful;symmetry ↔A -symmetry,militarism ↔anti -militarism;

English.harm- ful 'harmful' – harm- less 'harmless'

Enantiosemy(Greek enantios‘opposite’), or intraword antonymy– the presence of a word with opposite meanings. Eg:

borrow- lend ↔ borrow

make a reservation - specially ↔ accidentally,

view- looking around, getting to know something ↔ looking, not to notice, to miss,

pamper– undead, caress ↔ to misbehave, to dissipate,

lat.altus- high ↔ deep.

Except language enantiosemy, isolated speech, which arises in certain contexts as a result of an expressive-ironic assessment of events, when a word with a positive meaning is used in a negative sense:

So you haven’t prepared for class today?!Amazing !

Suchgood I've never seen a reception before!

Oh, andsmart !

Interlingual enantiosemy:

stink– in East Slavic languages ​​‘to give off a bad smell’, in West Slavic languages ​​– ‘to smell fragrant’, cf. Czech stinkers'perfume';

freak in Polish ‘beauty’;

lat. hostis ‘enemy’ → for Russians and Germans ‘foreign merchant’ → Gast, guest‘friendly visitor’; in the Indo-European proto-language the word meant ‘foreigner’ [Reformatsky, p. 102].

The connection between antonymy and polysemy and synonymy

LSV a polysemantic word can be included in various series of antonyms:

thick - rare(about forest, hair); – liquid(about soup, sour cream);

dry – 1) not containing moisture – wet,

2) devoid of moisture – wet,

3) lacking freshness – fresh,

4) thin – full,

5) devoid of gentleness, kindness - affectionate.

Between synonymous pairs (and rows) it is possible antonymous relationship:

­ grief ↔ joy ,

grief - sadness, pain, sorrow, grief, melancholy, grief etc.

joy - joy, bliss, happiness etc.

cowardly

brave timid antonymous bundle

timid

Stylistic use of antonymy

1. Antonyms are a vivid means of expression antitheses(a stylistic device based on the opposition of comparable concepts (objects, phenomena, features) at the level of phrases, sentences):

All this would befunny whenever it wasn't like thissad .

Easily make friends – hard get separated .

2. Oxymoron(Greek oxymō ron‘witty-stupid’) is a figure of speech that consists of combination of words, contradictory in meaning:

eloquent silence

ringing silence,

dry wine,

living corpse,

dead souls,

hot snow.

Literature

Alefirenko N. F. Theory of language. Introductory course. M.: Academy, 2004. Antonymy. Functions of antonyms. pp. 221–227.

Vendina T.I. Introduction to linguistics. M.: graduate School, 2001. Antonyms. pp. 158–160.

Girutsky A. A. Introduction to linguistics. Minsk: TetraSystems, 2001. 6.4. Lexico-semantic groupings of words. Antonyms. Antonymy. pp. 137–140.

Kodukhov V. I. Introduction to linguistics. M.: Education, 1987. § 28. Lexico-semantic groupings of words. Antonyms. pp. 183–184.

LES – Linguistic Encyclopedic Dictionary. M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1990. Antonymy. pp. 35–36. Antonyms. P. 36.

Rakhmanova L. I., Suzdaltseva V. N. Modern Russian language. Vocabulary. Phraseology. Morphology. M.: Moscow State University Publishing House: CheRo Publishing House, 1997. Antonyms. pp. 106–115.

Reformatsky A. A. Introduction to linguistics. M.: Aspect Press, 1997. § 17. Antonyms. pp. 101–104.

Modern Russian language. Phonetics. Lexicology, Phraseology / ed. P. P. Fur coats. Minsk: Progress, 1998. Correlation of Russian words based on the principle of antonymy. pp. 210–216.

Shaikevich A. Ya. Introduction to linguistics. M.: Academy, 2005. § 57. Semantic groups. pp. 163–166.

ERYA – Russian language. Encyclopedia. M.: Great Russian Encyclopedia - Bustard, 1997. Antonymy. pp. 28–29. Antonyms. P. 31.

This article will be devoted to such interesting topic, as antonyms. What are they and how are they used.

The essence of antonyms

Antonyms are words that differ not only in spelling. Antonyms are words that have opposite meanings. So, for example, the antonym of the word “good” is the word “evil,” and the antonym of the word “friendship” is “enmity.”

Let's take a deeper look at this issue. Let's take two synonyms (words that are similar in meaning). For example, “beauty” and “charm”. The antonym of the word “beauty” is the word “ugliness”. Does this mean that if the word “ugliness” is an antonym for the word “beauty”, then it will be an antonym for the word “charm”. Yes, it does. So you can do general conclusion: The antonym of a particular word will also be the antonym of the synonym of that word.

Using antonyms

Many foreign and Russian writers, poets and publicists used antonyms to show the contrast between two situations, between some two states. When two opposite words are used in the same sentence to show some radical difference, it is taken much more seriously and makes us think about what the author is trying to say. For example, this method of storytelling is often found when the author wants to convey to the reader his state of mind.

Lermontov wrote: “In her eyes there is light as in the sky, in her soul it is dark as in the sea.” Using two antonyms in such beautiful shape, the poet showed us the essence of things. Instead of writing several couplets, revealing the theme of the personality of the heroine to whom this line is dedicated, Lermontov made do with just one sentence.

From the above example it is clear that antonyms allow the author not only to shorten his narrative, but also to express his thoughts in a very poetic and original form. This gives him the opportunity to emphasize the uniqueness of his work.

Now you know that antonyms are not only a lexical definition, but also a special technique in creativity. This technique is called antonymy. If you have no attitude towards creativity, this does not mean that you cannot use this technique in your speech. There is a completely different attitude towards a person who knows how to eloquently express his thoughts.

Antonyms (gr. anti- against + onyma- name) are words that differ in sound and have directly opposite meanings: truth - lie, good - evil, speak - remain silent. Antonyms usually refer to one part of speech and form pairs.

Modern lexicology considers synonymy and antonymy as extreme, limiting cases of, on the one hand, interchangeability, and on the other, opposition of words in content. At the same time, synonymous relations are characterized by semantic similarity, while antonymic relations are characterized by semantic difference.

Antonymy in language is presented as narrower than synonymy: only words that are correlative in some way - qualitative, quantitative, temporal, spatial and belonging to the same category of objective reality as mutually exclusive concepts - enter into antonymic relations: beautiful - ugly, much - little, morning - evening, remove - bring closer. Words with other meanings usually do not have antonyms; compare: house, thinking, write, twenty, Kyiv, Caucasus. Most antonyms characterize qualities ( good - bad, smart - stupid, native - alien, dense - rare and so on); There are also many that indicate spatial and temporal relationships ( large - small, spacious - cramped, high - low, wide - narrow; early - late, day - night); fewer antonymous pairs with quantitative meaning ( many - few; single - numerous). There are opposite names for actions, states ( cry - laugh, rejoice - grieve), but there are few of them.

The development of antonymic relations in vocabulary reflects our perception of reality in all its contradictory complexity and interdependence. Therefore, contrasting words, as well as the concepts they denote, are not only opposed to each other, but are also closely related to each other. Word Kind, for example, evokes in our minds the word angry, distant reminds of close, speed up- O slow down.

Antonyms "are on extreme points lexical paradigm" 1, but between them in the language there may be words that reflect the specified feature to varying degrees, i.e. its decrease or increase. For example: rich- wealthy - poor - poor - beggar; harmful- harmless - useless - useful . This opposition suggests a possible degree of strengthening of a characteristic, quality, action, or gradation (lat. gradatio- gradual increase). Semantic gradation (graduality), therefore, is characteristic only of those antonyms whose semantic structure contains an indication of the degree of quality: young - old, big - small, small - large and under. Other antonymic pairs are devoid of the sign of gradualism: up - down, day - night, life - death, man - woman.

Antonyms that have the attribute of gradualism can be interchanged in speech to give the statement a polite form; so, it's better to say thin, how skinny; elderly, how old. Words used to eliminate the harshness or rudeness of a phrase are called euphemisms (gr. eu- good + phemi- I say). On this basis, they sometimes talk about antonyms-euphemisms, which express the meaning of the opposite in a softened form.

In the lexical system of the language one can also distinguish antonyms-conversives (lat. conversio- change). These are words expressing the relation of opposition in the original (direct) and modified (reverse) statement: Alexander gave book to Dmitry. - Dmitry took book from Alexander; Professor accepts test from the trainee.- Trainee rents out test for professor 2 .

There is also intra-word antonymy in language - antonymy of meanings polysemantic words, or enantiosemy (gr. enantios- opposite + sema - sign). This phenomenon is observed in polysemous words that develop mutually exclusive meanings. For example, verb move away can mean “come back to normal, feel better,” but it can also mean “die, say goodbye to life.” Enantiosemy becomes the reason for the ambiguity of such statements, for example: Editor looked through these lines; I listened to divertissement; Speaker misspoke and under.

According to their structure, antonyms are divided into multi-root (day - night) and single-root ( come - go, revolution - counter-revolution). The former constitute a group of actual lexical antonyms, the latter - lexico-grammatical. In single-root antonyms, the opposite meaning is caused by various prefixes, which are also capable of entering into antonymic relationships; compare: V lay down - You lay down at put - from put, for cover - from cover. Consequently, the opposition of such words is due to word formation. However, it should be borne in mind that adding prefixes to qualitative adjectives and adverbs not-, without- most often gives them the meaning of only a weakened opposite ( young - middle-aged), so that the contrast of their meaning in comparison with prefix-free antonyms turns out to be “muted” ( middle-aged- this does not mean “old”). Therefore, not all prefix formations can be classified as antonyms in the strict sense of the term, but only those that are extreme members of the antonymic paradigm: successful - unsuccessful, strong - powerless.

Antonyms, as already mentioned, usually form a pairwise correlation in a language. However, this does not mean that a particular word can have one antonym. Antonymic relations make it possible to express the opposition of concepts in an “unclosed” polynomial series, cf.: concrete - abstract, abstract; cheerful - sad, sorrowful, dull, boring.

In addition, each member of an antonymic pair or antonymic series can have its own synonyms that do not intersect in antonymy. Then a certain system is formed in which synonymous units are located vertically, and antonymous units are located horizontally. For example:

smart - stupid sad - rejoice reasonable - stupid sad - have fun wise - brainless yearn - rejoice big-headed - headless smart - stupid

Such a correlation of synonymous and antonymic relations reflects the systemic connections of words in the lexicon. Systematicity is also indicated by the relationship between polysemy and antonymy of lexical units.

1 Fomina M.I. Modern Russian language: Lexicology. P. 140.

2 See: Novikov L.A. Antonymy in Russian. M., 1973. S. 35, 145.