Semantic classification

1. Contrary (gradable antonyms, antonyms proper) antonyms represent contrary notions, they are regularly gradable (there are some intermediate units between the most distant members of a set) and they do not deny one another. Gradual oppositions are formed by groups of members which are distinguished, but by the degree of a differential feature. Such words refer not to independent absolute qualities but to some implicit norm, i.e. their important feature is the presence of some reference point, e.g. old and young are the most distant elements of a series like: old : : middle-aged : : young, while hot and cold form a series with the intermediate cool and warm. Grading is based on the operation of comparison. One can compare the intensity of feeling as in love – attachment – liking – indifference – antipathy – hate. Whenever a sentence contains an antonym or an antonymic pair, it implicitly or explicitly contains comparison.

The elements of a contrary pair have contrastive distribution: The poem is good → The poem is not bad (good : : bad).

2. Contradictory (complementary, binary) antonyms represent contradictory notions, they are mutually opposed and denying one another, and at the same time complete each other up to one whole (generic) concept, for example, true – false, asleep – awake, leave – stay, yes – no, vacant – occupied, male – female. Binary opposition means, that it consists of two members, which are distinguished by the presence or absence of a differential feature. For example, alive means ‘not dead’ and impatient means ‘not patient’, evil – ‘not good’. There is no gradation scale with antonyms of this type, so there is no intermediate concept. However, the distinction between the two types of antonyms is not absolute, as one can say that one is more dead than alive, and thus, make these adjectives gradable.

The elements of a complementary pair have similar distribution: This is prose → This is not poetry (prose : : poetry).

3. Conversive antonyms (conversives, converses, relational opposites) – are words which denote one and the same referent or situation as viewed from different points of view, with a reversal of the order of participants and their roles. Converseness is a mirror-image relation or function, e.g. give : : receive, ancestor : : descendant, parent : : child, left : : right, cause : : consequence, saddening : : saddened.

Conversives can be interchangeable when accompanied with the change of active into passive. The substitution of a conversive does not change the meaning of a sentence if it is combined with appropriate regular morphological and syntactical changes and selection of appropriate prepositions: He gave her flowers. She received flowers from him. = She was given flowers by him.

4. Vectorial (directional) antonyms are words denoting differently directed actions, features, e.g. up – down, to rise – to fall, clockwise – anticlockwise, to button – to unbutton, to appear – to disappear, to praise – scold, to increase – to decrease, to marry – to divorсе, to learn – to forget, revolutionary – counterrevolutionary.

Relations of semantic opposition can embrace even lexico-semantic variants of the same word. Such a phenomenon is called enantiosemy and such words are called contronyms. Contronym (antagonym, autoantonym, amphibolous word, Janus word (from the notorious two-faced deity за the Roman myth) is a word which has two opposite meanings. For example, quite can mean ‘moderately’ as well as ‘completely’; sanction can indicate allowing something as well as refusing to countenance it; прослушать «выслушать до конца» и «пропустить, не услышав»; бесценный «очень ценный» и «совсем не ценный».