Antonimia: Types and Examples

The antonym expresses a semantic relationship of contrast between two lexical units or words in certain contexts. This term was coined by C. J. Smith in his book Synonyms and antonyms of 1867. In general, unlike synonymy, antonymy requires a one-to-one relationship.

For example, the antonym of"happy"is"sad". Instead, as synonyms can be named"happy","happy","happy", among others. However, antonymy is variable, as it depends largely on the context. However, some particular antonyms are often known without reference to a contextual framework.

Antonimia

For example, black and white colors are opposite when they have the meaning of"good"or"evil", respectively. This is the case of expressions such as"white magic"and"black magic". The antonym relations belong to the most interesting aspects studied by the linguistic discipline.

His analysis is further proof that human beings think and speak in categories. Therefore, they classify each word into groups by referring to one or several characteristics (presumably) of these words. In this sense, antonymy is simply a particular form of categorization.

This is based on a marked (though rarely logical) differentiation of other words. Consequently, an antonym can not occur on its own terms; he always needs another word to refer to.

Index

  • 1 Types
    • 1.1 From the formal point of view
    • 1.2 According to the type of contrast
  • 2 Examples of antonym
    • 2.1 Original version
    • 2.2 Version with antonyms
  • 3 References

Types

From the formal point of view

Considering the formal point of view, antonym relations are classified into lexical antonyms (pairs of different words with opposite meanings) and grammatical antonyms (opposites formed by adding a prefix).

In this way, the good / bad, interesting / boring and fast / slow pairs are lexical antonyms. For its part, scrupulous / unscrupulous, honest / dishonest and symmetric / asymmetric are grammatical antonyms.

According to the type of contrast

Reciprocal antonyms

The reciprocal antonyms show a relationship of symmetry in their meanings. So, if X gives Y to Z, then Z receives Y from Z; or if X is something of Y, then Y is something of X.

Some pairs of words that exhibit this kind of antonym relationship are buy / sell, teacher / student, boss / employee, hunter / prey, give / receive and up / down.

Complementary antonyms

On the other hand, complementary antonyms do not imply a relationship of reciprocity; that is, one element of the pair does not necessarily lead to the other.

Some examples of these opposites are: single / married, present / absent, on / off, alive / dead, singular / plural and asleep / awake.

Gradual antonyms

The gradual antonyms are always adjectives. The meaning of these pairs of antonyms is related to the objects that they modify. These words do not provide an absolute scale.

For example, it is known that"a small whale"will be much larger than"a large squirrel", or that"fast"implies a greater speed when applied to an airplane than when it refers to a bicycle.

In addition, these pairs give rise to implications. In this way,"a whale is bigger than a dolphin"implies that"a dolphin is smaller than a whale".

Among others, these gradual pairs include: good / bad, fat / skinny, pretty / ugly, high / low, long / short. Note that all cases can be accompanied by"more"or"less": more or less skinny, more or less fat.

Examples of antonym

Some examples of antonymy are:

  • Fat-skinny.
  • High Low.
  • Capable-incapable.
  • Conformist-maverick.
  • Tolerant-intolerant.
  • Achievement-failure.
  • Ancient-modern.
  • Offer-demand.
  • Create-destroy.
  • Full empty.
  • Innocent-guilty
  • Active passive.
  • Private public.
  • Comic-tragic.
  • Rich, poor.
  • Light-dark.

To better explain the concept of antonymy in a text, we will give an example of its use in a real text. Below is a fragment of The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. Then a version with the opposites will be presented (in some cases, the wording is a bit contrived).

Original version

" All right !"said the witch. We do not have a table... let's see. Be best let's put it against the trunk of a tree.

Edmund was obliged to get up with rudeness , and then him dwarf he placed him with his back against a tree and what tied with force .

He saw how the witch removed the mantle higher . The woman's arms were naked under he and they were terribly white .

Due precisely to its whiteness , the child could distinguish them, although he could not see them much more , since there was hardly light in that valley low the dark Trees

-Prepare the victim - ordered the witch.

He dwarf unzipped the neck of Edmund's shirt and doubled toward behind the shirt at neck height. Then subject the child's hair and pulled towards behind of his head, forcing him to raise Chin.

After of that, Edmund heard a noise strange : zum, zum, zum. For a moment it did not occur to him what it might be, but he understood it at once. It was the sound of a knife being sharpened."

Version with antonyms

" Wrong !"said the witch. We do not have a table... let's see. Be worst let's put it against the trunk of a tree.

Edmund was invited to sit down with smoothness , and then him giant he placed him with his back against a tree and what untied with weakness .

He saw how the witch I placed the mantle lower . The woman's arms were covered on he and they were pleasantly black .

Due precisely to its blackness , the child could distinguish them, although he could not see them little less , since there was hardly darkness in that valley on the clear Trees

-Prepare to victimizer - ordered the witch.

He giant buttoned the neck of Edmund's shirt and unfolded toward ahead the shirt at neck height. Then he let go the child's hair and pulled towards ahead of his head, forcing him to go down Chin.

Before of that, Edmund heard a noise family : zum, zum, zum. For a moment it did not occur to him what it might be, but he understood it at once. It was the sound of a knife being sharpened."

References

  1. Jones, S.; Murphy, M. L.; Paradis, C. and Willners, C. (2012). Antonyms in English, Construals, Constructions and Canonicity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  2. Nordquist, R. (2017, April 27). What is Antonymy? Taken from thoughtco.com.
  3. Murphy, L. (2003). Semantic relations and the lexicon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  4. Dominik, J. (2015). Of attractive women and unattractive men. A linguistic study of perfect antonymy in two-word phrases. Munich: GRIN Verlag.
  5. García-Macho, M. L.; García-Page Sánchez, M. Gómez Manzano, P. and Cuesta Martínez, P. (2017). Basic knowledge of Spanish language. Madrid: University Press Ramón Areces.
  6. Rodríguez Guzmán, J. P. (2005). Graphic grammar to the juampedrino mode. Barcelona: Carena Editions.
  7. Fromkin, V.; Rodman, R. and Hyam, N. (2013). An Introduction to Language. Boston: Cengage Learning.


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