Antonymy

Definition
- Antonymy is a sense relation between two words or
predicates that share a negative relationship within the same filed of meaning.

Ex: Pass - Fail Hot - Cold

Thinner Fatter
True False Big Small Buy - Sell

Morphological Characteristic
Negative prefix
Binary antonyms continue discontinue curable incurable legal illegal ripe unripe punctual unpunctual Grandable antonyms approve - disapprove friendly - unfriendly happy - unhappy intelligent - unintelligent wise - unwise

Derivational antonyms

Classification
Binary antonymy (complementarity)
Gradable Antonymy

Relational Antonymy (converses)

Systems of multiple incompatibility

Binary Antonyms
(predicates which come in pairs and between them exhaust all the relevant possibilities)

a) Are mutually exclusive: not alive is dead and not dead is alive. b) Cant be used in a comparative or superlative sense:

* dead more dead than alive half-dead very much

alive alive * He is more single/more married than his brother.

c) Cant be used in questions with how to ask about

degrees: * How single/How married is he?

Gradable Antonyms
(Opposite ends of a continuous scale of values) (a) Are gradable: hot warm lukewarm cool tepid cold (b) Can be used in a comparative or superlative sense: wider is less narrow, more difficult is less easy.....

(c) Can be used in questions with how to ask about

degrees: - How difficult is the test?

(Un)markedness
Words that are in an antonymous relationship often do not have equal status with respect to markedness Eg: high--low, tall- -short, heavy--light, farnear The unmarkedness of one member of any pair of antonyms enables it to occur in questions of degree. Eg: How heavy is it? (not How light is it?) How tall are you? (not How short are you?) How deep is the canal? (not How shallow is the canal?)

Binary # Gradable
- Blurred by language users.

Ex:
Whatever is alive is not dead and that whatever is dead is not alive.

The adjectives dead and alive form a pair of

binary antonyms. However, the expressions like half-dead, barely alive, and more dead than alive, in some contexts, we see alive and dead as gradable antonyms.

Relational Antonyms
- Describes a relationship between two things (or people) or the same relationship when the two things (or people) are mentioned in the opposite order CONVERSES of each other. Ex: If Jenny is thinner than Mary, then Mary is fatter than

Jenny.
thinner, fatter is pairs of relational antonyms.

Relational antonyms belong to various word classes: a. Verbs: buy - sell, give - receive, lend - borrow, import export, own - belong to, .....

b. Nouns: employer - employee, grandparent

grandchild, professor student,.... c. Adjectives: thinner - fatter, cheaper - more expensive, greater than - less than,..... (Comparative) d. Adverbs: more efficiently - less efficiently, faster more slowly,..... (Comparative) e. Prepositions: above - below, in front of - behind, over - under, before - after,....

Mutually incompatible antonyms

(words or predicates that belong to a multiple member system in which all members together cover all the relevant areas)

Example

Season

Spring

Summer Autumn

Winter

Exercises
Ex1: Are the following pairs of words binary antonyms? 1. Chalk - cheese Yes / No 2. Same - different Yes / No 3. Copper - tin Yes / No 4. Dead - alive Yes / No 5. Married - unmarried Yes / No Ex2: Are the following pairs of words relational antonyms? 1. Below - above Yes / No 2. Love - hate Yes / No 3. Conceal - reveal Yes / No 4. Greater than - less than Yes / No 5. Own - belong to Yes / No

Exercises
Ex 3: State whether the following pairs of antonyms are binary, gradable or relational by writing B (binary), G (gradable) or R (relational):
Import - export: _________________________________
Better (than) - worse (than): _________________________ Deciduous - evergreen:___________________________

Expensive - cheap: ______________________________

Legal - illegal: __________________________________ Beautiful - ugly: ________________________________

Asleep - awake: ________________________________

Exercises
Ex1: Are the following pairs of words binary antonyms? 1. Chalk - cheese Yes / No 2. Same - different Yes / No 3. Copper - tin Yes / No 4. Dead - alive Yes / No 5. Married - unmarried Yes / No Ex2: Are the following pairs of words relational antonyms? 1. Below - above Yes / No 2. Love - hate Yes / No 3. Conceal - reveal Yes / No 4. Greater than - less than Yes / No 5. Own - belong to Yes / No

Exercises
Ex 3: State whether the following pairs of antonyms are binary, gradable or relational by writing B (binary), G (gradable) or R (relational):
Import - export: _________________________________
Better (than) - worse (than): _________________________ Deciduous - evergreen:___________________________

Expensive - cheap: ______________________________

Legal - illegal: __________________________________ Beautiful - ugly: ________________________________

Asleep - awake: ________________________________

Thank you for listening