英语词汇学7-2.pptVIP

7.2. Antonymy antonymy: oppositeness of meaning; words that are opposite are antonyms. What kind of words can have antonyms? a. Qualitative Adjectives: good---bad, young---old, beautiful--ugly, light---heavy b. Nouns denoting quality, state, or relationship: beauty--ugliness, lightness--darkness, diligence--laziness, wisdom foolishness, war-- peace, amity--hostility c. Adverbs denoting time, position and direction or state: early-- late , quickly-- slowly, up-- down, upstairs -- downstairs, forwards--backwards, d. Verbs denoting feelings/emotion or action: to love--to hate, to support -- to oppose, to give -- to take, to win -- to lose 7.2.1 Types of antonyms 1. Antonyms classified on the basis of semantic contrast (a) Gradable Antonyms (b) Complementary Antonyms (c) Converse Antonyms 2. Antonyms classified on the basis of morphological structure Root antonyms Derivative antonyms (a) Gradable antonyms Gradable or contrary antonyms display a type of semantic contrast, illustrated by such pairs as rich and poor; heavy and light; deep and shallow, etc. e.g.rich-- very rich , richer rich—poor: well-to-do, well-off, moderately, wealthy comfortably off, hard up beautiful – ugly: pretty, good-looking, plain hot cold Nouns: fool, wise man; verbs : to love, to hate, adverbs: up, down; determiners : a few, many always never More / less relation The more/less relation is evident in a number of ways: 1) The terms allow comparison e.g. This classroom is bigger than that one. 2) The adjectives can be modified by ‘intensifying’ adverb, e.g. very big, extremely hot (b) Complementary antonyms Complementaries or contradictories represent a type of binary semantic opposition. In a complementary pair the contrast between the two terms is absolute, i.e. they are in such a relationship that the denial of the items means the assertion of the other or vic