21. Antonyms

Antonyms words of the same of part of speech which are based on opposition or contrast of meaning, such as hot — cold, light — dark, happiness — sorrow, to accept — to reject, up — down.

Most antonyms are adjectives. Verbal pairs of antonyms are fewer in number. Here are some of them: to lose — to find, to live — to die, to open — to close, to weep — to laugh.

Nouns are not rich in antonyms, but even so some examples can be given: friend — enemy, joy — grief, good — evil, heaven — earth, love — hatred.

Antonymic adverbs can be subdivided into two groups: a) adverbs derived from adjectives: warmly — coldly, merrily — sadly, loudly — softly; b) adverbs proper: now — then, here — there, ever — never, up — down, in — out.

Together with synonyms, antonyms represent the language's important expressive means. The following quotations show how authors use antonyms as a stylistic device of contrast.

How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty¹ world. (From Merchant of Venice by W. Shakespeare. Act V, Sc. I)

... But then my soul's imaginary sight Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,

¹ naughty — wicked, evil (obs.)

Types of antonyms

2 Groups:

Gradable (градальные) – two words which denote the extremes of the quality. E. g. warm______cool______cold, old____middle-aged____young

Complementary (дополняющие др. др.) /contradictory – denote such notions which on the one hand can’t exist without each other, on the other hand they don’t exclude each other. E. g. leave – stay, find – lose.

There are also (in our lectures)

Conversive – naturally denote & describe opposite attributes of the same situation. E. g. If I buy, means that smb sells.

Derivational – are formed with the addition of negative prefixes or the oppositional suffixes. E. g. (un)easy, (il)legal, carefull / less, meaningfull / less

22. Homonyms

Homonyms – are words identical in some forms but different in meaning. E. g. to see – a see

Modern English is exceptionally rich in homonyms.

Types of homonyms

3 Classification:

• The first refers to sound forms:

1. homophones– the sound is the same, meaning – different.

2. homographs – spelt alike, pronounced different. E.g. to like – a like (transmission)

3. perfect homonyms e.g. a seal (печать) – a seal (тюлень).

• The second – to grammar forms:

1. full – coincide in all forms. E.g. a seal, seals, seal’s (печать) – a seal, seals, seal’s (тюлень)

2. partial – belong to different parts of speech. E. g. to see, saw, seen – a sea, seas.

• The third is based on the type of meaning in which the words differ.

1. lexical – differ only in the lexical meaning. E.g. a seal – a seal

2. lexical – grammatical – differ both in their lex. & gram. meanings. E.g. to see, a see; to live – a live [ai]

3. grammatical – differ in gram. meaning. E. g. to ask – asked-asked – 2 & 3 forms differ grammatically; a seal, seals, seal’s – 2 & 3 gram. homonyms.

Sources of homonyms

1. The change of the pronunciation & spelling of words during the history of the language. E. g.

   to see old Eng. seen middle Eng. seen → see [e] during the great vowelshift all the

   a sea sæ долгий sea [æ] long vowels → [i:]

2. Extensive borrowing – 50 %. E.g. to race (быстро бежать) – from Scandinavian.

3. Creation – shortening. E. g. a fanatic → fan (фанат);a fan (вентилятор) from Latin.