Lecture7SynonymyAntonymy.pptVIP

gradable antonyms (contraries) (相对性反义词) Gradable (渐进的) antonyms do not represent an either/or relation but rather a more/less relation. Gradable (渐进的) antonyms are best viewed in terms of a scale running between two poles or extremes. Examples of gradable antonyms huge very big big quite big medium-sized quite small small tiny beautiful good-looking plain ugly Complementary antonyms (complementaries) (互补反义词) 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 so opposed to each other that they are mutually exclusive and admit no possibility between them. The assertion of one is the denial of the other A B Examples of complementaries dead/alive asleep/awake present/absent on/off permit/forbid remember/forget singular/plural shut/open win/lose male/female true/false sloth/diligence joy/sadness sleep/insomnia same/different Non-gradable Do not allow adverbs of intensity like very. Conversives (换位反义词) Conversives of relational opposites indicate such a reciprocal (相互的) social relationship that one of them cannot be used without suggesting the other. Examples of conversives employer/employee teacher/student parent/child husband/wife predecessor/successor sell/buy give/receive above/below lend/borrow own/belong to Classification of antonyms by morphological structure Words like deep/shallow, to love/to hate, up/down are root antonyms, for they are words with different roots. Derivational antonyms are words with the same roots having negative affixes. Examples of derivational antonyms happy/unhappy conformist/nonconformist possible/impossible loyal/disloyal prewar/postwar harmful/harmless Features: A word can have more than one antonyms Fresh bread Fresh air Fresh flowers Fresh look stale bread stuffy air faded flowers tired look Practise: give an antonym to the word “clear” in each context. 1) The discussions enabled them to have a clea