Antonyms are words opposed to each other in meaning, but belonging to the same part of speech. They have different spellings and sounds. It is very easy to determine the meaning of one antonym through another, it is enough to give it the form of negation. For example, a direct antonym for the word to speak is not to be silent, sad is not cheerful, and so on. In this article, we will take a closer look at the concept of "antonyms" and find out their types.
General information
Due to the richness of the Russian language, there are many nuances and subtleties in any part of speech. It is not for nothing that numerous textbooks on linguistics are studied in schools and some higher educational institutions.
- It is noteworthy that due to the ambiguity of language units, the antonyms of the same word in different contexts differ. For example: old boar - young boar, old car - new car, old cheese - fresh cheese and so on.
- Not every lexical item has antonyms. They are not, for example,have words sew, institute, book and so on.
- The main feature is the opposition of words that can mean:
- signs of the subject (smart - stupid, evil - kind);
- social and natural phenomena (talent - mediocrity, heat - cold);
- states and actions (take apart - collect, forget - remember).
Types of antonyms
They vary in structure.
- Single-root antonyms are words that are opposite in meaning, but have the same root. For example: love - dislike, progress - regression. They are formed by adding prefixes (not-, without / with-, re-, de- and so on).
- Different root antonyms are words that are polar in meaning and have different roots. For example: big - small, black - white.
In turn, the first type is also divided into: antonyms-euphemisms (loyally express the opposite, difference, for example: significant - insignificant) and enantiosemes (express opposition with the same word, for example: view (in the sense of seeing) and view (in the sense of skipping).
Another group is also distinguished: contextual antonyms are words that differ in meaning only in a particular case. For example, in the author's performance: she had not eyes - but eyes.
In terms of meaning, antonyms are as follows.
- Opposite: they denote the polarity of actions, phenomena or signs. As a rule, between similar antonyms you can put a word with a neutralmeaning: joy - apathy - sadness, positive - indifference - negative.
- Vector: they denote multidirectional actions: put on - take off, open - close.
- Contradictory: indicate the polarity of objects, phenomena and signs, each of which excludes the other. It is impossible to put a neutral word between them: right - left.
Antonym functions
In a sentence, antonyms play a stylistic role and are used to make speech more expressive. Often they are used as an antithesis (opposition, contrast). Example: "Who was nobody, he will become everything." Sometimes antonyms form an oxymoron (connection of the incompatible). Example: "Hot snow", "Living corpse".
Antonyms are widely used not only in the titles of works, but also in proverbs and sayings.
