Antonyms Antonyms

Antonyms

Antonyms – a class of words grouped together on the basis of the semantic relations of opposition. Antonyms are words belonging to one part of speech sharing certain common semantic characteristics and in this respect they are similar to such semantic classes as synonyms, lexical sets, lexico-semantic groups.The term antonym (and the related antonymy) is commonly taken to be synonymous with opposite, but antonym also has other more restricted meanings. Graded (or gradable) antonyms are word pairs whose meanings are opposite and which lie on a continuous spectrum (hot, cold).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:

1)Antonyms proper (contrary antonyms) are antonyms which possess the following characteristics: cold – cool – tepid – warm – hot;

 

2)Contradictory antonyms (complementary antonyms) are mutually opposed (exclusive) and deny one another, e.g. male – female; married – single; 

3)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; 

4)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.