3. Antonyms. Types of antonyms.

Antonyms are defined as words of the same category of parts of speech which have contrasting meaning, e.g. hot - cold, light - dark, up-down, happiness - sorrow. Antonyms fall into two main groups:

a. Root or absolute antonyms (those which are of different roots). These are words regularly Contrasted as homogeneous sentence members connected by copulative, disjunctive conjunctions, or identically used in parallel constructions, in certain typical configurations (typical context), e.g. He was alive - not dead (Shaw) You will see if you were right or wrong

b. Derivational antonyms (affixal). The affixes in them serve to deny the quality stated in the stem. The contrast is implied in the morphological structure of the word itself, e.g. appear - disappear, happiness - unhappiness, logical - illogical, pleasant - unpeasant.

There arc typical affixes and typical patterns that take part in forming theses derivational antonyms. The examples of given below prefixes prevail. They have negative meaning (dis-, i!-/im-/in-/ir-, un-).

As to the suffixes it should be noted that modern English gives no examples of words forming their antonyms by adding a negative suffix, e.g. the suffix -less (hopeless: :hopefull, useless: :useful).

In most cases when the language posesses words with the suffix -less, the antonymic pairs found in actual speech are formed with the prefix un-. Thus, the antonimic opposition is not selfish:;selfless but selfish:.unselfish

The difference between absolute and derivational antonyms is not only morphological but semantic as well. Thus, according to the relationship between the notions expressed antonyms may be characterized as contradictory (derivational antonyms) or contrary (absolute antonyms). A pair of derivational antonyms form a binary opposition, where the absolute antonyms are polar members of a gradual opposition,

e.g. young - old; beautiful:: pretty:: good-looking:: plain - ugly

Many antonyms are explained by means of the negative particle,

e.g. clean - not dirty; shallow - not deep

Not only words, but set expressions as well, can be grouped into antonimic pairs,

e.g. by accident - on purpose, up to par - below par

It is important to remember that antonyms form mostly pairs, not groups like synonyms,

e.g. above - ЬоШ\\>, absent -present, alike - different

Polisemantic words may have antonyms in some of their meanings and none in others. When criticism means 'censure ' its antonym is praise; when it means 'writing critical essays dealing with the works of some author', it can have no antonym. 4. Homonyms: words of the same form.

Homonyms are words which are identical in sound and spelling or, at least at one of these aspects, but different in their meaning and distribution.

e.g. bank, n - a shore / bank, n - an institution for receiving, lending, exchanging, and safe guarding money.// fit, n -perfectly fitting clothes /fit, n- a nervous spasm

There are several classifications of homonyms. The traditional formal classification of homonyms is as follows:

1. Homonyms proper (Absolute homonyms) are words identical in pronunciation and spelling, e. g. Ball (м'яч) - ball (бал), to bore (свердлити) - bore (нудна людина), to bark (гавкати) - bark (кора)

2. Partial homonyms subdivided into:

a) homographs - words different in sound and in meaning but accidentally identical in spelling, e.g. bow (лук) - bow (uic корабля), lead (свинецъ) ~ to lead (вести), row (ряд) - row (прогулянка на лодщ), tear (розрив) - tear (сльоза).

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b) homophones - words of the same sound but of different spelling and meaning, e.g. night (нгч) -knight (лицар), piece (шматочок) - peace (мир), rite (звичай, обряд) - to write (nucamu) - right (правильно), sea (море) - see (бачити) - С (лгтера алфавиту), steel (сталь) - steal (красти).

The play-wright on my right thinks it right that some conventional rite should symbolize the right of every man to write as he pleases. In this sentence the sound complex [rait] is noun, adjective, adverb and verb, has four different spellings and six different meanings. According to professor A.I. Smirnitsky's classification homonyms may be classified into two large classes: full (- words which represent the same category of parts of speech and have the same paradigm; - have the same spelling an pronunciation) and partial homonyms (simple lexico-grammatical, complex lexico-grammatical, partial lexical homonyms). Simple lexico- grammatical belong to the same part of speech, their paradigms have only one identical form, it is never the same form ; to found, verb / found, verb (Past Ind., Past. Part, of to find). Complex lexico-grammatical belong to different parts of speech and have one identical form in their paradigms: rose, noun / rose, verb (Pat Ind. of to rise). Partial lexical homonyms belong to the same part of speech but identical only in corresponding forms of their paradigms: to lie (lay, lain), verb / to lie (lied, lied), verb 5. Sources of homonyms. Sources of Homonyms are:

1. Phonetic changes which words- undergo in the course of their historical development. Night and knight,

2. Borrowing. A borrowed word may, in the final stage of its phonetic adaptation, duplicate in form either a native word or another borrowing, rite, n. - to write, v.- right, adj. the second and third words are oJ native origin whereas rite is a Latin borrowing (< Lat. ntus).

j. Conversion -'comb, п.- to comb, v., pale, adj.- to pale, v., to make, v,- make, n. Homonyms of this type, which are the same in sound and spelling but refer to different categories of parts of speech, are called lexico-grammatical homonyms.

4. Shortening. E.g. fan, n. in the sense of "an enthusiastic admirer of some kind of sport or of an actor, singer, etc." is a shortening produced from fanatic.

5. Words made by sound-imitation can also form pairs of homonyms with other words: e, g. bang, n. ("a loud, sudden, explosive noise") - bang, n. ("a fringe of hair combed over . the forehead").

6. Two or more homonyms can "originate from different meanings of the same word when, for some reason, the semantic structure of the word breaks into several parts. This type of formation of homonyms is called split polysemy: Board - a long and thin piece of timber / Board - daily meals especially provided for pay / Board - an official group of persons who direct or supervise some activity. A board of directors. All the meanings developed from the meaning " a table".

6. Paronyms Paronyms are words with similar pronunciations but different spellings and meanings. For example:

accept /ak'sept/ - verb - to take or receive that which is offered

except /ik'sept/ - preposition - excluding

My mom must accept that my brother likes all vegetables except for turnips.

collision - noun - crash, clash, conflict

collusion - noun - a secret agreement that is oftentimes illegal The collision resulted from the collusion over traffic signs.

Lecture 10

ENGLISH VOCABULARY AS A SYSTEM

1. Different types of non-semantic grouping:

Morphological grouping of words;

Lexico-Grammatical groups;

- Thematic groups.

2. Semantic classification of words.

3. Hyponymic relations.

4. Vocabulary in the process of time.