29. Antonyms in English. Classification of Antonyms.

Antonyms — a class of words grouped together on the basis of the semantic relations of opposition. Antonyms are words belonging to one part of speech sharing certain common semantic characteristics and in this respect they are similar to such semantic classes as synonyms, lexical sets, lexico-semantic groups. There exist different classifications of antonyms. Structurally, antonyms can be divided into antonyms of the same root, e.g. to do — to undo, cheerful — cheerless: and antonyms of different roots. e.g. day — night, rich — poor. Semantically, antonyms may be classified into: 1. Contradictories represent the type of semantic relations that exist between pairs like, for example, dead — alive, single — married. Contradictory antonyms are mutually opposed, they deny one another. Contradictories form a privative binary' opposition, they are members of two-term sets.  2. Contraries are antonyms that can be arranged into a series according to the increasing difference in one of their qualities. The most distant elements of this series will be classified as contrary notions. This may be observed in cold — hot and cool — warm which are intermediate members. Thus, we may regard as antonyms not only cold and hot but also cold and warm. Contrary antonyms may also be considered in terms of degrees of the quality involved. Thus, water may be cold or very cold.  3. Incompatibles are antonyms which are characterized by the relations of exclusion. Semantic relations of incompatibility exist among antonyms with a common component of meaning and may be described as the reverse of hyponymy. For example, to say morning is to say not afternoon, not evening, and not night. The use of one member of this set implies the exclusion of the other members of the set.

30. Lexical and grammatical valency.

There are two factors that influence the ability of words to form word-groups. They are lexical and grammatical valency of words. The aptness of a word to appear in various combinations is described as its lexical valency. The noun job, for example, is often combined with such adjectives as backbreaking_t difficult, hard: full-time, part-time, summer, cushy, easy; demanding: menial, etc. The noun myth may be a component of a number of word-groups, e.g. to create a myth, to dispel a myth, to explode a myth, myths and legends, etc. The point is that compatibility of words is determined by restrictions imposed by the inner structure of the English word stock (e.g. a bright idea = a good idea; but it is impossible to say "a bright performance", or "a bright film"; "heavy metal" means difficult to digest, but it is impossible to say "heavy cheese"; to take a chance, but it is possible to say only "to take precautions").

Grammatical valency is the aptness of a word to appear in specific gram-l structures. The minimal gram-l context in which words are used when brought together to form word- groups is usually described as the pattern of the word-groups. For instance, the verb to offer can be followed by the infinitive (to offer to do smth.) and the noun (to offer a cup of tea). The verb to suggest can be followed by the gerund (to suggest doing smth.) and the noun (to suggest an idea). The grammatical valency of these verbs is different.

The adjectives clever and intelligent are seen to possess different gr-l valency as clever can be used in word-groups having the pattern: adjective + preposition *ai' + noun (cleier at mathematics), whereas in­telligent can never be found in exactly the same word-group pattern.