Sense Relations II: Antonymy
ANTONYMY oppositeness of meaning: ‘X is the opposite of Y’
incompatibility
= entailment + negation {X Þ ~ Y}
1. Complementaries (binary pairs) {Saeed, p. 66}}
Normally non-gradable opposites;
between them the pair exhaust all possibilities; i.e. if the one predicate is applicable, the other cannot be.
e.g.
(i) true : false
(ii) off : on
(iii) same : different
(iv) dead : alive
(v) male : female
But: He is more dead than alive
2. Reverses {Saeed, p. 67}
Relation describing movement.
One term describes movement in one direction and the other the same movement in the other direction
Also processes that can be reversed
e.g.
(i) push: pull
(ii) come: go
(iii) up: down
———————–
(iv) inflate/deflate
(v) expand/contract
(vi) knit/unravel
3. Converses {Saeed, p. 67}
Describe a relation between two entities from alternate view points.
(i) husband : wife
Hillary is Bill’s wife. Bill is Hilary’s husband
(ii) father : daughter
Bill is Chelsea’s father. Chelsea is Bill’s daughter.
(iii) buy : sell
If
I bought this car from you, then you sold this car to me.
4. Gradable Antonyms: fully ‘gradable’ { Saeed, p. 67}
Opposites where opposite of one term does not imply the negative of the other
There usually intermediate terms between gradable antonyms
Usually relative
(i) good : bad
(ii) long : short
(iii) quick : slow
5. Taxonomic sisters (Incompatibles) {Saeed, p. 68}
Words at the same level of taxonomy
(ii) North : South : East : West
(iii) Atlantic : Pacific : Arctic : Antarctic : Indian
(i) green : blue : red … etc., etc.
(iv) pamphlet : journal : booklet :
magazine : circular : ____________________
Workshop
TASK 1:
What is the opposite of?
woman : __________ hot : __________
large : __________ love : __________
mountain: __________ married : __________
friendly: __________ profound : ___________
Which ones from these pairs belong to a more/less scale i.e. are gradable antonyms?
Which ones are complementaries?
Which ones are converses?
TASK 2:
Think of one more example of:
(a) complementaries.
_______________________________
(b) converse
_________________________________
TASK 3:
Name the type of antonymy of each pair
Wet/Dry __________
On/Off __________
Patient/Doctor __________
Young/Old __________
Predator/Prey __________
Buy/Sell __________
Open/Close __________
Easy/Difficult __________
Yes/No __________
Input/Output __________
Black/White __________
Come/Go __________
Atlantic/Pacific __________