7.2.

Antonymy

Antonyms are two words which are homogeneous from a grammatical point view (e.g.,
they belong to the same grammatical category), which can be opposed in meaning to each other,
but which are usually identical in distribution and style.
Antonymic pairs can be placed on the imaginary common semantic axis which
represents what the two terms have in common, in other words, the idea of sameness. On the
semantic axis, one of the terms represents the positive, and the other one the negative value.
In the identification of antonyms, distribution plays an important part. The idea of
distribution implies that of similar places in similar contexts, e.g.,
A good beginning makes a good ending. (Proverb)
Deceit and sincerity cannot live together. Truth must kill the lie, or the lie will kill the
truth. (G. Meredith)
Promise little but do much. (Proverb)
The more haste, the less speed. (Proverb)
According to their form, antonyms are classified as:

a) Root antonyms (also called absolute or radical antonyms, e.g.,

This group also includes nouns that denote persons and animals of opposite sexes, e.g.,
man - woman, stallion - mare, he-parrot - she-parrot, male elephant -female elephant.
Such compounds and similar root antonyms are bound together in the sense that a certain
concept
immediately evokes the contrary one, e.g., abstract generates the concept concrete.
A word may have more than one root antonym, e.g.,

bad - good, moral, virtuous;

centre - periphery, outskirts.
cause - effect good - evil
friend - enemy hot - cold
life - death light - dark
north - south sick - well
to come - to go above - below
to extend - to shorten before - after
to find - to lose front - to
to remember - to forget over - under
this - that here - there
these - those now - then

A word's grammatical category plays an important part in the selection of antonyms. As

a verb, love has the antonyms hate, despise, loathe.
Polysemantic words may also have several antonymic words, e.g.,

to part1 - to gather to part2 - to remain

inept1 - sensible inept2 - suitable
(b) Derivational antonyms (also called affixal antonyms) do not achieve the
opposition through the change of the root, but through various affixes attached to a common stem.
These affixes are negative prefixes and suffixes.
The prefix dis-, meaning "opposite of," "contrary to," and "do the opposite of, the reverse
of a specific action," is used to form the counter term in such pairs as:
appear - disappear belief - disbelief establish - disestablish
join - disjoin qualify - disqualify union - disunion
The prefix un-, meaning "not," "opposed of," "contrary to," and "to do the opposed,
reverse of," provides the counter term in
clear - unclear helpful - unhelpful
dissolved - undissolved learn - unlearn
dressed- undressed load - unload
employed - unemployed lucky - unlucky
equal - unequal separable - unseparable
fold - unfold skilled - unskilled

The allomorphs in- or il-, im-, -ir appear in such antonymic pairs as in:

active - inactive mature - immature

accessible - inaccessible probable - improbable
literate - illiterate rational - irrational
logical - illogical reducible - irreducible

Sometimes, two prefixes may compete in providing the counter term, e.g.,

unreplaceable - irreplaceable
unreproachable - irreproachable
 Suffixes may be used in forming antonymic pairs, e.g.,
hopeful — hopeless peaceful — peaceless
Sometimes they can be competed by prefixes, as in
spiritless – unspirited

According to Löbner 2002

a) gradable antonyms
This category includes adjectives: beautiful / ugly, fast / slow, hot / cold, rich / poor, hot / cold,
cheap / expensive, etc. These pairs are called gradable because they express a more/less relation
of oppositeness, i.e. they allow comparison and can be modified by intensifiers such as very,
rather, quite, too, extremely, extraordinarily:

It is very/ extremely hot.

It is rather/quite/too cold.

The negation of one does not involve the assertion of the other antonym: She is not beautiful
does not mean She is ugly.

b) contradictory or complementary antonyms:

These pairs are in an either/or relation of oppositeness (asleep / awake, dead / alive, married /
single). An animate being can be either dead or alive, not a grade of a scale. The denial of one
implies the assertion of the other:

If he is not asleep, he is awake.

If John is married, he is not single.

Complementary adjectives are not gradable, they do not permit the comparative, superlative, or
modification by very (*more asleep, *the most asleep, *very asleep). Other examples are female /
male, even / odd (of numbers), possible / impossible, free / occupied, true / false. Prefixation with
un- or in- is also used for the formation of complementary opposites.
Complementarity more typically occurs with nouns, e.g. pairs of terms for persons of
opposite sex, or pairs such as member / non-member, official / non-official. The meanings of two
complementaries are identical except for one crucial feature in which they differ (cf. the
examples aunt / uncle or buy / rent).

c) converses
The term converse denotes an equivalent mirror-image relation, in which the order of the
arguments is reversed (buy / sell, borrow / lend, give / receive, precede / follow, speak / listen):

Jane bought a book from Helen.

Helen sold a book to Jane.

In these sentences the same transaction expressed by the antonymic pair buy and sell is seen from
two different perspectives. The arguments may change positions in a sentence, the verb is
replaced by its antonymic counterpart, but the sentences remain otherwise equivalent. One
member expresses the converse meaning of the other, i.e., a different perspective on the same
relation. Similarly, the pairs: husband / wife, parent / child, doctor / patient express social
relationships:

John is Mary’s husband. Mary is John’s wife.

These sentences imply each other and therefore they have the same meaning. Pairs of converses
are also the result of the derivations of nouns from verbs with the suffixes -er and -ee, such as:
employer / employee, trainer / trainee, etc.

d) directional opposites
Pairs like before / after, below / above, behind / in front of are related to spatial position or
direction. This type of relation is also known as directional opposition (cf. Löbner 2002:91).
Directional opposites are linked to opposite directions on a common axis, which may be either a
vertical axis: (top / bottom, high / low, up / down, upstairs / downstairs, uphill / downhill, rise /
fall, ascend / descend and many more), or a horizontal one (forwards / backwards, advance /
retreat).
A similar example is the time axis. Things may happen ‘before’ or ‘after’ a certain
time. Directional opposites related to the time axis are: before / after, past / future, since /
until, yesterday / tomorrow, last / next, precede / follow. Also related to time are pairs of
directional opposites like tie / untie, pack / unpack, wrap / unwrap, dress / undress, put on / put
off, get on / get off, switch on / switch off, embark / disembark, charge / discharge, enter /
leave, begin / stop, start / finish, fall asleep / wake up, appear / disappear, open / close, and
many more. One member, for instance, fall asleep, denotes the bringing about of a certain
state, while the other member, wake up, denotes an action by which the state is ended.

According to both logical and lexicological criteria, Webster 's Dictionary of

Synonyms
classifies antonyms as follows:

(1) Contradictory terms, i.e., terms "so opposed to each other- that they are
mutually exclusive and-admit no possibility between them," e.g.,

compatible - incompatible agree - disagree

favourable - unfavourable like - dislike
perfect - imperfect

(2) Contrary terms, i.e., terms "so opposed in meaning that the language admits no
greater divergence. They are the true 'diametrical opposites'," e.g.,

beginning - ending light- dark

dangerous - safe life - death
 easy - hard little - much
find - lose reject - approve
give - take white - black
good - bad young - old
high - low

(2) Relative terms, i.e., "pairs of words which indicate such a relationship that one
of them cannot be used without suggesting the other," e.g.,

jack-ass - jenny-ass parent - child

employee - employer predecessor - successor
husband - wife

(3) Reverse terms, i.e., terms which "comprise adjectives or adverbs which signify
a quality, or verbs or nouns which signify an act or state, that reverse or undo the quality, act,
or state of the other. Although they are neither contradictory nor contrary terms, they present a
clear opposition," e.g., the antonym of admit is reject, but eject implies the reverse of admit.
Harmless is the antonym of destructive, but constructive is the reverse or undoing of destructive.

(4) Contrasted terms, terms that differ

(a) in their range of application or applicability, one being general, the other specific, or
one being more inclusive or less inclusive than the other.
Antonyms belong to the same registers, and, in this aspect, they are different from
synonyms, which are frequently differentiated by the registers they belong to.
Antonymic types of associations are frequently revealed in literary works not by the
semantic features of words, but by the structure of the context in which they appear. Words that
are not antonyms can be treated as antonyms, as in the following except:
"Your friends are the dullest dogs I know. They are not beautiful: they are only
decorated. They are not clean, they are only shaved and starched. They are not dignified, they are
only fashionable dressed. They are not educated, they are only college passmen. They are not
moral: they are only conventional. They are not virtuous: they are only cowardly. They are not
even vicious: they are only frail. They are not artistic: they are only lascivious. They are not
prosperous: they are only rich. They are not loyal, they are only servile; not dutiful, only sheepish,
not courageous, only quarrelsome; not determined, only obstinate; not masterful, only domineering,
not self-controlled, only obtuse, not self-respecting, only vain; not kind, only sentimental; not social,
only gregarious; not considerate, only polite; not intelligent, only opinionated; not progressive,
only factious; not imaginative, only superstitious, not just, only vindictive; not generous, only
propitiatory, not disciplined, only coward; and not truthful at all; liars every one of them, to the
backbone of their souls." (G. B. Shaw)

The adverbs of manner not - only (one of negation and the other one of restriction),
showing exclusiveness, place the words and phrases in antonymic positions, though, in fact, they
express complementary ideas, e.g., usually a person who is considered "clean" is also "shaved"
and "starched," but it is not enough to be "shaved and starched" to be "clean."
Antonyms are used not only in various types of antitheses, but they also stand on the
base of oxymoron (from Gk. oxymoron, meaning "pointedly foolish"), which associate two
contradictory words, e.g., infinitesimal storm, disastrous abundance, cruel kindness.