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Contradictories which represent the type of semantic relations that exist between pairs like dead
and alive, single and married, perfect and imperfect, etc. To use one of the terms is to contradict the
other and to use not before one of them is to make it semantically equivalent to the other, cf. not
dead=alive, not single=married.
Among contradictories we find a subgroup of words of the type young— old, big — small, and so
on. The difference between these and the antonymic pairs described above lies in the fact that to say
not young is not necessarily to say old. In fact terms like young and old, big and small or few and
many do not represent absolute values. To use one of the terms is to imply comparison with some
norm: young means ‘relatively young’. We can say She is young but she is older than her sister. To
be older does not mean ‘to be old’.
2. Contraries are also mutually opposed but they are gradable. (e.g. cold – hot and cool – warm)
Contraries differ from contradictories mainly because contradictories admit of no possibility
between them. One is either single or married, either dead or alive, etc. whereas contraries admit
such possibilities. This may be observed in rich - well-to-do - poor - beggar; harmful - harmless -
useless - useful which seem to be intermediate members. Thus we may regard as antonyms not only
rich and poor but also well-to-do and beggar. Contraries may be opposed to each other by the
absence or presence of one of the components of meaning like sex or age. This can be illustrated by
such pairs as man — woman, man — boy.
3. Incompatibles - the negation of one number of this set excludes the possibility of the other
words of this set.
To say morning is to say not afternoon, not evening, not night.
To say red is to say not blue, green, etc.
Semantic relations of incompatibility exist among the antonyms with the common component of
meaning and may be described as the reverse of hyponymy, i.e. as the relations of exclusion but not
of contradiction. To say morning is to say not afternoon, not evening, not night. The negation of one
member of this set however does not imply semantic equivalence with the other but excludes the
possibility of the other words of this set. A relation of incompatibility may be observed between
colour terms since the choice of red, e.g., entails the exclusion of black, blue, yellow and so on.
Naturally not all colour terms are incompatible. Semantic relations between scarlet and red are
those of hyponymy. We know that polysemy may be analysed through synonymy. For example,
different meaning of the polysemantic word handsome can be singled out by means of synonymic
substitution a handsome man—a beautiful man; but a handsome reward—a generous reward. In
some cases polysemy may be also analysed through antonymy (e.g. a handsome man—an ugly
man, a handsome reward—an insufficient reward, etc.). This is naturally not to say that the number
of meanings of a polysemantic word is equal to the number of its antonyms.
absolute/ root (late/early) they have different roots. Absolute antonyms, then, are words regularly
contrasted as homogenous sentence members connected by copulative, disjunctive or adversative
conjunctions, or identically used in parallel constructions, in certain typical contexts.
In the examples given below we shall denote the first of the antonyms — A, the second — B, and the words
they serve to qualify — X and Y, respectively.
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).
The formula is: A and (or) В = all
1. Если вы повиновались всем правилам, хорошим и плохим, и вы все равно выходите в грязном
конце ... тогда я говорю, что правила никуда не годятся (М. Уилсон).
Формула такова: A и (или) В = все
Derivational antonyms(to please-to displease) contain the same root but different affixes. In most
cases prefixes from antonyms an-, dis-, non-. Sometimes they are formed by suffixes -full & -less.
But they do not always substitute each other selfless – selfish, successful – unsuccessful. The same
with “-“ prefixes to appoint – to disappoint.
The affixes in derivational antonyms serve to deny the quality stated in the stem. The opposition
known - unknown is by no means isolated: far from it. It is not difficult to find other examples
where contrast is implied in the morphological structure of the word itself.
E.g. appear - disappear; happiness - unhappiness; logical -illogical; pleasant - unpleasant; prewar
- postwar; useful - useless, etc. There are typical affixes and typical patterns that go into play in
forming these derivational antonyms. It is significant that in the examples given above prefixes
prevail. The regular type of derivational antonyms contains negative prefixes: dis-, il-/im-/in-/ir-,
поп- and un-. Other negative prefixes occur in this function only occasionally.
As to the suffixes, it should be noted that modern English gives no examples of words forming their
antonyms by adding a negative suffix, such as, for instance, -less. The opposition hopeless - hopeful
or useless - useful is more complicated, as the suffix -less is not merely added to the contrasting
stem, but substituted for the suffix -ful. The group is not numerous.
In most cases, even when the language possesses words with the suffix - less, the antonymic pairs
found in actual speech are formed with the prefix un-. Thus, the antonymic opposition is not
selfish : : self/ess but selfish : : unselfish. Cf. selfishness : : unselfishness; selfishly : : unselfishly.
E.g. I had many reasons, both selfish and unselfish, for not giving the unnecessary openings
(Snow).
The difference between absolute and derivational antonyms is not only in structure but in semantic.
The derivational antonyms express contradictory notions, one of them excludes the other active –
inactive. The absolute antonyms express contrary notion: ugly – plain – good-looking – pretty –
beautiful
Например, у меня было много причин, как эгоистичных, так и бескорыстных, чтобы не
давать ненужных отверстий (Снега).
Разница между абсолютными и деривационными антонимами заключается не только в
структуре, но и в семантике. Деривационные антонимы выражают противоречивые понятия,
одно из которых исключает другое активно – неактивное. Абсолютные антонимы выражают
противоположное понятие: некрасивый – некрасивый – симпатичный – красивый
Conversives are words which denote one and the same referent as viewed from different points of
view, with a reversal of the order of participants and their roles, e.g. buy-sell, give-receive.
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: He gave her flowers. She
received flowers from him. = She was given flowers by him.
Some linguists class conversives as a subset of antonyms, others suggest that antonyms and
conversives together constitute the class of contrastives. Although there is parallelism between the
two relations, it seems more logical to stress that they must be distinguished, even if the difference
is not always clear-cut. The same pair of words, e. g. fathers and sons, may be functioning as
antonyms or as conversives. 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 book sells well). 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’.
This peculiarity of conversives becomes prominent if we compare equivalents in various languages.
The English verb marry renders both conversive meanings, it holds good for both participants:
Mary married
Dick or Dick married Mary. In a number of languages, including Russian, there are, as J. Lyons and
some other authors have pointed out, two verbs: one for the woman and another for the man.
Конвергенты-это слова, которые обозначают один и тот же референт, рассматриваемый с разных
точек зрения, с изменением порядка участников и их ролей, например, купить-продать, дать-
получить.
Следует отметить, что sell в данном случае-это не только конверсия buy, это означает "быть
проданным", "найти покупателей" (Книга хорошо продается). Тот же контраст активного и
пассивного смысла наблюдается и в прилагательных: печальный - "опечаленный" и "опечаленный",
сомнительный и сомнительный - "испытывающий сомнение и внушающий сомнение".
Эта особенность конверсивов становится заметной, если сравнить эквиваленты в разных языках.
Английский глагол marry передает оба конверсивных значения, он хорош для обоих участников:
Mary married
Дик или Дик женился на Мэри. В ряде языков, в том числе и в русском, есть, как указывали
Дж.Лайонс и некоторые другие авторы, два глагола: один-для женщины, другой-для мужчины.