Антонимы и синонимы в английском языке

The complementary opposite, sometimes is known as the contradictory. Like the gradable adjectives, the complementary adjectives share a semantic dimension, but it is a dimension which has no middle values. As Cruse describes it:

“The essence of a pair of complementaries is that between them they exhaustively divide some conceptual domain into two mutually exclusive compartments, so that what does not fall into one of the compartments must necessarily fall into the other".

It is sometimes hard to decide whether a pair of opposites belongs in the set of gradable adjectives or in the set of complementaries. But, as Cruse says, in addition to adjectives, verbs such as “pass” - “fail” and “obey” - “disobey”, nouns such as “day” - “night”, prepositions such as “in”  - “out”, and adverbs such as “backwards” - “forwards”  are also sometimes considered examples of complementaries.

Although by definition, complementaries are pairs which allow no logical middle term, in actual use, complementaries are sometimes used like gradable adjectives; for example, we can say that something is almost true, or that someone is barely alive.

However, as Lyons (1977) points out, in these cases it may be the "secondary implications" of the words that are being graded rather than the main sense. That is, someone who is barely alive is actually entirely alive, but “s/he” is not as lively or energetic as most people are. Directional opposites are another type of opposite, described in Lyons (1977) and in greater detail in Cruse (1986). These are generally adverbs or prepositions and include pairs such as “up - down”, “in - out”, and “clockwise” - “anticlockwise”.

Reersive opposites, described in Lehrer and Lehrer (1982) and Egan (1968), are yet another type of opposite, Egan describes reversive opposites in this way:

“ These 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.” 

This class contains many verbs, for example, “tie”  - “untie”, “marry” - “divorce”, “enter”  - “leave”, “appear” - “disappear”. Cruse and Lyons consider the reversive verbs to be a subtype of directional opposites, because they all describe activities which result in an object undergoing a change from one state to another. Thus Cruse says the opposition seen in pairs of reversive verbs is similar to the kind of opposition in pairs of directional prepositions such as “to” - “from”.

 

 

1.3.3 Converives

 

“Relational opposites” is the term given by Cruse [26] also called “relative terms” according to Egan [27] and “conversive terms” difined by Lyons [27], include pairs such as “above” - “below”, “predecessor” - “successor”, “parent” - “child” and “teacher” - “student”.

Egan describes these as pairs of words which indicate such a relationship that one of them cannot be used without suggesting the other.

Cruse considers this class to also be a subclass of the directional opposites. He says that these pairs "express a relationship between two entities by specifying the direction of one relative to the other along some axis." In examples such as “above”  - “below”, this axis is spatial, but other examples (e.g. “ancestor”  - “descendant”) involve "an analogical or metaphorical extension of spatial dimensions". 

Lyons points out that many opposites of this type involve social roles (“teacher” - “student”, “doctor”  - “patient”) or kinship relations (“father” - “mother”), and these types of reciprocal relations have been wll documented in many languages in the anthropological literature.

Conversives (or relational opposites) as F.R. Palmer calls them denote one and the same referent or situation as viewed from different points of view, with a reversal of the order of participants and their roles. The interchangeability and contextual behaviour are specific. The relation is closely connected with grammar, namely with grammatical contrast of active and passive. The substitution of a conversive does not change the meaning of a sentence if it is combined with appropriate regular morphological and syntactical changes and selection of appropriate prepositions, ex. “He gave her flowers. She received flowers from him. = She was given flowers by him”.

An important point setting them apart is that conversive relations are possible within the semantic structure of one and the same word. M.V. Nikitin mentions such verbs as “wear”, ”sell”,  “tire”, “smell”, etc. and such adjectives as “glad”,  “sad”, “dubious”, “lucky” and others. It should be noted that “sell” in this case is not only the conversive of “buy”, it means “be sold”, “find buyers”. The same contrast of active and passive sense is observed in adjectives: “sad”  “saddening” and “saddened”, “dubious” and “doubtful” mean “feeling doubt and inspiring doubt”.

So, semantically antonyms can be classified as gradable antonyms (describing something, which can be measured and compared with something else), complementary antonyms (which are matter of being either one thing or another), and converse antonyms (these antonyms always depend on each other). Morphological classification of antonyms includes two types of antonyms:

· Absolute or Root Antonyms (with root polarity), and

· Derivational antonyms (which has morphems with polar meanings).

Taking into account the main aims of these investigation, all these points of scientific view should be worked out and analyzed in the next part of the Course Paper.

Lexico-Semantic meaning of words distinguishes three essential types of lexical meaning of words: nominative meaning determined by reality, phraseologically bound meaning of words depending on the peculiarities of their usage in a given language, and syntactically conditioned meanings of words are those which change with the change of the environment.

 

In the structure of lexical meaning of a word we distinguish two main components: denotative and connotative.

Polysemantic word may have an antonym or several antonyms for each of its meanings. Antonyms are not evenly distributed among the categories of parts of speech.

Antonyms are similar as words belonging to the same part of speech and the same semantic field, having the same grammatical meaning and functions, as well as similar collocations. According to their morphological structure antonyms may be classified into: root antonyms and derivational antonyms (having the same roots but different derivational affixes).

Some linguists tell us about three types of pairs with opposite meaning. So, semantically antonyms can be classified as gradable antonyms (describing something, which can be measured and compared with something else), complementary antonyms (which are matter of being either one thing or another), and converse antonyms (these antonyms always depend on each other).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part 2. Textual Presentation of Antonyms in Modern English

2.1 Textual Presentation of Antonyms in Modern English

It's time to study examples of antonyms in detail.

Arnold handles a problem of using of antonyms in a literary as means of giving emphasise to some contrast. Antonyms create emotional tension as in the following lines from “Romeo and Juliet”  (Act I, Scene V):

My only love sprang from my only hate

Too early seen unknown, and known too late!

The opposition is obvious: each component of these pairs means the opposite of the other. Some other examples:

1. If you've obeyed all the rules good and bad, and you still come out at the dirty end ... then I say the rules are no good (M. Wilson).

2. He was alive, not dead (Shaw).

3. You will see if you were right or wrong (Cronin)

4. The whole was big, oneself was little (Galsworthy)...

Another important example is the possibility of substitution and identical lexical valency [60]. This possibility of identical contexts is very clearly seen in the following lines:

1. There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, That it hardly becomes any of us To talk about the rest of us (Hock).

As for the same antonymic pair, they reveal nearly identical spheres of collocation. Examples: the adjective “hot”  in its figurative meaning of “angry” and “excited”  is chiefly combined with names of unpleasant emotions: anger, resentment, scorn, etc. Its antonym “cold” occurs with the same words.

The example with “Elephant” mentioned in the theoretical part, gives us an interesting notice such words as “young”  - “old”; “big” - “small”; “good”  - “bad” do not refer to independent absolute qualities but to some-implicit norm, they are relative.

The Elephant

When people call this beast to mind,

They marvel more and more

At such a little tail behind,

So large a trunk before.

The tail of an elephant is little only in comparison with his trunk and the rest of his body. For a mouse it would have been quite big. J. Lyons discusses an interesting example of antonyms also dealing with elephants: A small elephant is a large animal. The implicit size-norm for elephants is not the same as that for all animals in general: the elephant which is small in comparison with other elephants may be big in comparison with animals as a class.

Almost every word can have one or more synonyms. Comparatively few have antonyms. This type of opposition is especially characteristic of qualitative adjectives. E. g. in W. Shakespeare's “Sonnet LXXVI":

For as the sun is daily new and old, So is my love still telling what is told.

It is also manifest in words derived from qualitative adjectives, e. g. “gladly” - “sadly”; “gladness”  - “sadness”. Irrespective of the part of speech, they are mostly words connected with feelings or state: “triumph” - “disaster”;  “hope” - ”despair”. Antonymic pairs, also irrespective of part of speech, concern direction (hither and thither) (L.A. Novikov calls these “vectorial antonyms"), and position in space and time (far and near).

Nothing so difficult as a beginning,

In poetry, unless perhaps the end (Byron).

There are also “day” - “night”,  “late” - “early”, “over” - “under”. 

 

2.1.1 Root Antonyms in language

As we said in the first part, antonyms and conversives reflect polarity. We'll try to show that using antonyms. We've used

So, all antonyms can be divided into two big groups: root antonyms and derivational. First let us found a group of root antonyms. These are words, roots of which have opposite meanings.

· “New” - “old”

The new town of Whitney Clay had swallowed up the old village.

New - not existing before; introduced, made, invented, etc. recently or for the first time. Old - having been in existence or use for a long time.

 

· We can see that these pairs of words are pairs of antonyms, whereas the particle “not” is an element of formation of antonyms. We can find it using chain of meanings if the words. “Distant” - “near”

It may be near, it may be distant; while the road lasts nothing turns me.

· The meanings of these words enclose opposite semes, such as “distant” - “near”= “far away” - “short”, therefore they are antonyms. Our next examples illustrate pair of words, which are antonymous pairs: “Guilty” - “innocent”

So the law assumed there must be one guilty party, and one innocent party who has been wronged by desertion of the matrimonial bed.

· “Loathe” - “love”

· If a man and woman sinned, let them go for into the desert to love or loathe each other there. “Giant” - “pigmy”

“So you think your friend in the city will be hard upon me, if i fail a payment?” - says the trooper, looking down upon him like a giant. “My dear friend, I am afraid he will,” - returns the old man looking up at him like a pigmy.

 

2.1.2 Derivational antonyms in language

The second group of antonyms (derivations) can be made with: un -, in -; (il -; im -; ir -;); dis -, and -less. Some examples of derivationals:

· Approve - disapprove

Who am I to approve or disapprove?

· Tied - untied

People get tied up, and sometimes they stay tied - because they want to stay or because they haven't the will power to break or others become untied and make a new start.

· Engage - disengage

“How soon will you be disengaged?” “I didn't say you i was engaged.”

· Just - unjust

The A.F. of L. port leaders, as loyal servitors of capitalism, unquestionable support all wars, just or unjust, declared by the capitalist class and its government.

· Audible - inaudible

Little audible links, they are chaining together great inaudible feelings and purposes.

· Concerned - unconcerned

It concerned her in some way, but she herself was unconcerned, and she slid without effort into the position of mistress of the farm. So, it's easy to find these examples in Modern English. Their meanings are quite clever and understandable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.2 Differences of meaning of antonyms

However, the meanings can sometimes be different. Let us to analyze the verb “agree”. This verb has five meanings, but only three of them have antonyms.

Agree - v. 1.to say “yes”, ex: I asked for a pay rise and she agreed. - refuse; 2.to have a similar opinion to somebody, ex: I agree with his analysis of the situation. - disagree; 3.to be consisted with something; to match, ex: You account of the affair doesn't agree with hers. - disagree.

Order - n. The word has fourteen meanings, but only two of them have antonyms:

1.the state that exists when people obey the laws, rules or authority, ex: The police are trying to restore public order. - disorder;

2.the state of being carefully and neatly arranged, ex: Get your ideas into some kind of order before beginning to write. - disorder.

Black - adj. The word has nine meanings, but only three of them have antonyms:

1.of the very darkest colour, ex: A big black cloud appeared. - white.

2.without milk, ex: Two black coffees, please. - white. 3.of a race that has dark skin, ex: Many black people emigrated to Britain it the 1950s. - white.

Active - adj. The word has six meanings, but only two of them have antonyms: 1.doing things; lively, ex: She takes an active part in local politics.; -inactive.;

2.of the form of a verb whose subject is the person or thing that performs the action (grammar), as in He was driving the car and the children have eaten the cake. - passive.

Down - adv. The word has nine meanings, but only four of them have antonyms:

1.from the upright position to a lower level, ex: He bent down to pick up his gloves.- up.;

2.indicating a lower place or state, ex: The bread is on the third shelf down. - up.;

3.to be read from top to bottom, not from side to side, ex: I can't do 3 down. - across.;

4.away from a university (Brit), ex: going down at the end of the year. - up.

For - prep. The word has seventeen meanings, but only one of them have antonyms:

1. in defence or support of somebody/something, ex: I'm all for pubs staying open all day. - against.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.3 Using antonyms pair in proverbs and sayings

The main field of use pairs of antonyms is proverbs and sayings. Proverbs are phenomenon of thout, language, art. The main sense of proverbs and sayings is not the information given but artistic pattern, meaning content. Some examples:

The time passes away but sayings remain.

After a storm comes fair weather, after sorrow comes joy.

An hour in the morning is worth two in the evening.

There'd be no good fortune if misfortune hadn't helped.

Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

Breaking is not making.

Knowledge is light, ignorance is darkness.

You started speaking with delight and finished with a sorry sight!

Native dogs are fighting here, foreign ones should not interfere.

Greet him according to the clothes, take leave according to what he knows.[59]

Thus, based on the examples given above , we can say that antonyms are resource of a category “opposition”.

We have found a confirmation that antonyms can be expressed:

· as words with different roots;

· as words, which are formed with negative prefixes.

Almost every word can have one or more synonyms. Comparatively few have antonyms. The main field of use pairs of antonyms is proverbs and sayings. The main sense of proverbs and sayings is not the information given but artistic pattern, meaning content. We have found a confirmation that antonyms can be expressed: as words with different roots and as words, which are formed with negative prefixes.

The main criterion of antonyms is steady using their pairs in contexts. Antonym pairs thread Modern English. However, antonyms imply polarity of one of the semantic components of the words showing us the same main point. But understanding antonyms as polarity of the several semantic components of the words showing two polarity main points is possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.1 KINDS OF SYNONYMS AND THEIR SPECIFIC FEATURES

Synonyms are words different in their outer aspects, but identical or similar in their inner aspects. In English there are a lot of synonyms, because there are many borrowings, e.g. hearty / native/ - cordial/ borrowing/. After a word is borrowed it undergoes desynonymization, because absolute synonyms are unnecessary for a language. However, there are some absolute synonyms in the language, which have exactly the same meaning and belong to the same style, e.g. to moan, to groan; homeland, motherland etc. In cases of desynonymization one of the absolute synonyms can specialize in its meaning and we get semantic synonyms, e.g. «city» /borrowed/, «town» /native/. The French borrowing «city» is specialized. In other cases native words can be specialized in their meanings, e.g. «stool» /native/, «chair» /French/.

Sometimes one of the absolute synonyms is specialized in its usage and we get stylistic synonyms, e.g. «to begin»/ native/, «to commence» /borrowing/. Here the French word is specialized. In some cases the native word is specialized, e.g. «welkin» /bookish/, «sky» /neutral/.

Stylistic synonyms can also appear by means of abbreviation. In most cases the abbreviated form belongs to the colloquial style, and the full form to the neutral style, e.g. «examination', «exam».

Among stylistic synonyms we can point out a special group of words which are called euphemisms. These are words used to substitute some unpleasant or offensive words, e.g. «the late»  instead of «dead», «to perspire» instead of «to sweat»  etc.

There are also phraseological synonyms, these words are identical in their meanings and styles but different in their combining with other words in the sentence, e.g. «to be late for a lecture»  but «to miss the train», «to visit museums» but «to attend lectures» etc.

In each group of synonyms there is a word with the most general meaning, which can substitute any word in the group, e.g. «piece» is the synonymic dominant in the group «slice»,  «lump», «morsel». The verb « to look at» is the synonymic dominant in the group «to stare», «to glance»,  «to peep». The adjective «red' is the synonymic dominant in the group «purple», «scarlet», «crimson».

When speaking about the sources of synonyms, besides desynonymization and abbreviation, we can also mention the formation of phrasal verbs, e.g. «to give up» - «to abandon», «to cut down» - «to diminish». Grouping of words is based upon similarities and contrasts and is usually called as synonymic row. Taking up similarity of meaning and contrasts of phonetic shape we observe that every language has in its vocabulary a variety of words, kindred in meaning but distinct in morphemic composition, phonemic shape and usage, ensuring the expression of the most delicate shades of thought, feeling and imagination. The more developed the language, the richer the diversity and therefore the greater the possibilities of lexical choice enhancing the effectiveness and precision of speech.