Mid course assignment a study on the classification of antonyms in english

INTRODUCTION This essay aims to study the classification of antonyms in English.. The focus of the paper is on the use of antonyms in specific English texts froma linguistics perspective

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO UBND THÀNH PHỐ HẢI PHÒNG

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG

KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ

BÀI TẬP LỚN Học phần: Ngữ Nghĩa Học Tiếng Anh

Sinh viên: Phạm Thị Khánh Huyền (193122201057) – 29/06/2001

Nguyễn Phương Linh (193122201148) – 14/01/2001

Hoàng Thị Ngọc Mai (193122201120) – 03/12/2001

Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Trâm (193122201075) – 29/11/2001

Lớp: DHNNA2.K20

HAIPHONG UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT

Mid-course Assignment Subject: Semantics Topic: A study on the classification of antonyms in English

Student: Pham Thi Khanh Huyen (193122201057) – 29/06/2001

Nguyen Phuong Linh (193122201148) – 14/01/2001

Hoang Thi Ngoc Mai (193122201120) – 03/12/2001

Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tram (193122201075) – 29/11/2001

Class: DHNNA2.K20

Part 1 INTRODUCTION

This essay aims to study the classification of antonyms in English

This article aims to study antonyms in English texts The meaning of the study is presented first, then the definition of the antonym and its classification are detailed with examples The focus of the paper is on the use of antonyms in specific English texts from

a linguistics perspective, where numerous examples of antonyms are cited to help illustrate and demonstrate that Understanding and learning about antonyms can help understand different texts and the development of literature

In linguistics, one of the most important fields is semantic relations, specifically lexical relations, including synonyms, antonyms, antonyms, etc meaning, which have long been considered one of the most important semantic relations Human thinking and language are closely related, and the meaning of antonyms in human thinking is necessarily reflected in human language Besides, this would explain the existence of a large number

of antonyms in the vocabulary of the human language Antonym is one of the very useful semantic relations

Antonym pairs are often used in texts and in a large number of proverbs and idioms to achieve a rhetorical effect, for example, "you with everyone is friends with no one", regardless of that in common speech or literature In addition, antonyms play an extremely important role in language teaching and learning, which can be expressed in many definitions

Part 2 MAIN CONTENTS

2.1 DEFINITION

An antonym is a word that has the opposite meaning of another word For example, the word small means limited size, while big means large size Happy, a feeling of gladness,

is an antonym for sad, a feeling of sorrow

Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs can all have antonyms, though not all do A word can also have multiple antonyms. For example, the words fast, quick, speedy, swift, and rapid are all antonyms of the word slow

Even antonym has an antonym! The opposite of an antonym is a synonym, which is a word that has the same meaning as another word For example, a synonym of the word fast would be quick—both describe something that moves with speed

2.2 TYPES

A Lyons’s classification

(1) Antonyms Proper (gradable antonyms)

Gradable antonymy is the commonest type of antonymy The antonym pairs like hot/cold, big/small, and tall/short all belong to the gradable antonyms We can find that they are mainly adjectives The gradable antonymy has three characteristics: first, as the name suggests, they are gradable, that is, the members of a pair differ in terms of degree; second, antonyms of this kind are graded against different norms; third, one member of a pair, usually the term for the higher degree, serves as the cover term (Hu, 2001, p.164)

- As for the first characteristic, it also means that if you deny one thing, you do not necessarily affirm the other And pairs of antonyms can have comparative and superlative degrees

For example, "good" and "bad", both of which have comparative and superlative degrees: "better" / "best" and "bad" / "bad" So, not good is not necessarily bad; And if it's not bad, it's not necessarily good Between "good" and "bad", we can find a degree that is "so"

Take a look at other examples, between the extremes of size "large" and "small", there is

a degree of "medium"; between the two extremes of temperature are "hot" and "cold", whose degrees are "warm" and "cool"

From the information mentioned above, we can see that antonyms can be classified differently in degrees

- Looking at the second characteristic, it means that there is no absolute criterion by which we say one object is "large" and another is "small" Criteria are relative but not absolute As we all know, a small car is always bigger than a big apple This is why antonyms of this type are classified based on different criteria

- For the third characteristic, one of the pairs of antonyms is the term cover, which is called "unmarked" "Unmarked" is more widely used than "marked" We can ask "how old are you" or "how tall is she" instead of "how young are you" or "how short is she" In which, "old" and "tall" are the overarching terms, "unmarked"; and "young" and "short" are marked The distinction between "unmarked" and "marked" reflects the potential value system that the speech community holds People want to be tall rather than short

(2) Complementary Antonyms (Binary antonyms)

Antonyms like awake/asleep, married/single, pass/fail, alive/dead, and male/female are of this type Complementary antonyms also have three characteristics: first, they divide up the whole of a semantic field completely; second, the norm in this type is absolute; third, there is no cover term for the two members of a pair (Hu, 2001)

- Regarding the first feature, unlike classifiable antonyms, complementary antonyms share a common semantic field But between two complementary antonyms, there is no intermediate ground

As Cruse (1986) described, the essence of a pair of complementary antonyms is that between them completely divides a certain conceptual domain into two mutually exclusive compartments so that what does not fall into this compartment necessarily must fall into the other compartment The members of these pairs of antonyms complement each other

For example, "He's more female than male" He is male but not female He's male, but he's closer to being a female Male denial is female affirmation and female affirmation is male denial They don't have degrees of superlatives and superlatives And they have no degree of intermediate between these two words of a pair of antonyms

- The second feature is that the norm in this type of antonym is absolute, i.e the norm is the same when it is used for all things to which it is applicable The standard to distinguish men from women is the same when we refer to humans and animals And the death of man is the same as the death of any animal

- For the third feature, in the additional antonym, there is no inclusive or inclusive term

We can't ask about someone's gender like age It means we can't say "how kind boy/male

is it" like "how old are you" We should ask "Is it a boy or a girl" It's a normal question

(3) Relational Antonyms (Conversives).

In linguistics, converses or relational antonyms are pairs of words that refer to a relationship from opposite points of view, such as parent/child or borrow/lend The relationship between such words is called a converse relation Converses can be understood as a pair of words where one word implies a relationship between two objects, while the other implies the existence of the same relationship when the objects are reversed Converses are sometimes referred to as complementary antonyms because

an "either/or" relationship is present between them One exists only because the other exists

The antonym pairs like Husband/wife, Buy/sell, Front/back, Give/receive, Teach/learn, Servant/master, Borrow/lend, and Come/go are all converse antonymy They show a reversal relationship A is B’s husband means B is A’s wife If X sells something to Y, it means that Y buys something from X A gives B something means that B has received something from A C borrows money from D means d lends money It is also known as relational opposites

Egan (1968) describes these antonyms as pairs that include a relationship that one of them cannot be used without suggesting the rest Therefore, we can see that there is a huge difference between the opposite word and the two sub-types of the other meaning, that is, one should assume the rest of the other as for the two members Participate in a pair of antonyms Some buyers have a seller We can't say he is a husband, we have to say whose husband is, because people cannot be a husband if he is not married Just like parents cannot be a parent if he has no children In this relationship, one cannot talk about

A without B

However, there is something special in the "child" Children and parents are a pair of antonyms if their children mean the son or daughter of the parents But when it refers to someone under eighteen years old, children are from the meaning of adults It is like the word "teacher" Master is a single word when it refers to a career Only when it means that only one teacher for his students can this word form a left-meaning briefcase for

"students"

-List of converse words

Servant > < master East > < west

Come > < go North > < south

Toward > < away Seller > < buyer

Divisor > < dividend Slave > < master

Parent > < child Win > < lose

Floor > < ceiling Behind > < ahead

Front > < back Before > < after

Up > < down On > < off

Offense > < defense Trap > < release

B Conventional classification

(1) Root word antonyms ( antonyms proper): words that are of different forms and

opposite meanings

Antonyms are words that have opposite meanings about each other, they are phonetically different and reflect concepts There are many antonyms, for example: high – low, left-right, white – black, … Describing different things is to bring the clearest and sharpest comparisons to the readers and listeners

Also known as converse antonyms, relational antonyms play opposite roles in a mutual relationship For example, teacher and student are relational antonyms: Neither can exist without the other and yet their roles are completely different

For example :

- Other commonly relational pairs are :

Buy > < sell

Push> < pull

Command> < serve

Give> < take

Teach> < learn

Master> < servant

Teacher> < pupil

Doctor> < patient

- Antonyms are prefixed with non-:

Entity > < nonentity

Conformist > < nonconformist

Payment > < nonpayment

Sense > < nonsense

- Antonyms using the prefix mis-:

Behave > < misbehave

Interpret > < misinterpret

Lead > < mislead

Trust > < mistrust

- Add the prefix un- to create antonyms:

Likely > < unlikely

Able > < unable

Fortunate > < unfortunate

Forgiving > < unforgiving

- Let's see a few examples of antonyms created by adding the prefix dis-:

Agree > < disagree

Appear > < disappear

Belief > < disbelief

Honest > < dishonest

- Add the prefix in- to form the following antonym:

Tolerant > < intolerant

Decent > < indecent

Discreet > < indiscreet

Excusable > < inexcusable

(2) Derivational antonyms: words of the same root, one of which has a negative affix

In English, antonyms are often used with prefixes, and small suffixes of about one to three letters attached to the beginning of words to change their meaning There are a few prefixes and suffixes that reverse a word's meaning, making it the opposite — perfect for antonyms!

A prefix in English is a character or group of characters that precedes a root word and governs the meaning of this root word

Here are some common prefixes used with antonym pairs, along with their examples Each of these prefixes essentially changes the meaning of a word into its opposite meaning

dis- Derived from Latin, dis- is a negative prefix When you see a word that goes with dis-, it most likely means to lack, not, to do wrong, or to stay away.

honest > < dishonest

appear > < disappear

agree > < disagree

discomfort > < comfort

disobedient > < obedient

i-

logical > < illogical

legal > < illegal

responsible > < irresponsible

in-; im-; il-; ur- Derived from Latin, dis- is a negative prefix When you see a word

that goes with dis-, it most likely means to lack, not, to do wrong, or to stay away.

possible > < impossible

decent > < indecent

discreet > < indiscreet

legal > < illegal

regular > < irregular

injustice > < justice

intolerance > < tolerance

impatient > < patient

non- Derived from Latin, dis- is a negative prefix When you see a word that goes with dis-, it most likely means to lack, not, to do wrong, or to stay away.

believer > < nonbeliever

binary > < nonbinary

linear > < nonlinear

non-compliant > < compliant

nonverbal > < verbal

mis- usually has the meaning of doing something wrongly, such as misinforming someone about something However, most of the prefixes mean the same thing as each other, so it is just a case of learning which ones should be added to particular words.

lead > < mislead

behave > < misbehave

fortune > < misfortune

misinformation > < information

misconduct > < conduct

misunderstand > < understand

mal-function > < malfunction

nutrition > < malnutrition

adaptive > < maladaptive

un- Used to negate the original adjective

important > < unimportant

necessary > < unnecessary

likely > < unlikely

uncertain > < certain

unease > < ease

A suffix (suffix) is a word or group of words that come at the end of the root word and governs the meaning of the word

Here are some common suffixes used with antonym pairs, along with their examples Each of these suffix essentially changes the meaning of a word into its opposite meaning

-ful > <

-less-useful > < useless

-ish- > < -ous

selfish > < generous