Antonymy

Antonyms may be defined as words belonging to the same part of speech, identical in styley whose denotational meanings render contrary or contradictory notions. There are at least the following types of antonyms in English.

1. Contradictories, e.g. dead and alive, single and married. To use one of the antonyms is to contradict the other and to use not before one of them is to make it semantically equivalent to the other: not dead = alive.

According to V.N. Komissarov contradictories usually occur in the following context: not A but B.

2. Contraries differ from contradictories mainly because contradictories admit of no possibility between them: one is either dead or alive, whereas contraries admit of such possibilities. This may be observed in cold-hot and cool-warm, which are intermediate members. Thus we may regard as antonyms not only cold ad hot but also cold and warm. Contraries may be opposed to each other by the absence or presence of one of the components of meaning like sex or age (man-woman).

Contraries are used in the context:

A and В = all.

E.g. We see men and women there.

3. Incompatibles are antonyms which are characterized by the relations of exclusion.

To say "morning" is to say" not afternoon, not evening, not night". A relation of incompatibility may be observed between colour terms since the choice of red, for example, entails the exclusion of black, blue, yellow, etc. The formula of typical contexts in which incompatibles occur is as follows:

A or B.

E.g. You may choose a red or a blue pencil.

There is one more context in which various antonyms occur:

X is A, and Y is B.

E.g. The whole was big, oneself was little. All these contexts are introduced by Prof. V.N. Komissarov in his dictionary of antonyms "Словарь антонимов современного английского языка». V.N. Komissarov also keeps to the time honoured classification of antonyms into absolute or root antonyms (love-hate) and derivational antonyms (known-unknown). Derivational antonyms contain the negative prefixes dis-, il-/im-in-/ir-and un-. (appear — disappear; logical — illogical).

Like synonyms antonyms are used in phraseological units, e.g. in black and white, to play fast and loose. The_EngIish language is rich in antonyms. Antonyms are often found in poetry. We conclude the discussion of antonyms by quoting Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet"- (Act I) in which 4 antonyms occur:

"My only love sprung from my only hate

Too early seen unknown, and known too late.

WORD-GROUPS AND PHRASEQLOGICAL UNITS

It is an indisputable fact that words are used in certain lexical contexts, i.e. in combination with other words. The aptness of a word to appear in various combinations is described as its lexical valency or collocability. Words habitually collocated in speech lend to constitute a cliche. We observe, for example, that the noun "arms" and thе noun "race" are habitually collocated. “Arms race" is a cliche. Words are also used in grammatical contexts. The minimal grammatical context in which words are used when brought together to form word-groups is usually described as the раttеrn of word group. E.g. the verb to offег "can be followed by the infinitive (to offer to do smth) and а noun (to offer a cup of tea). The verb to suggest can be followed by the gerund (to suggest doing smth). and a noun (to suggest an idea). The grammatical valency of these verbs is different. Grammatical valency is the aptness of a word to appear in specific grammatical (or rather syntactical) structures.