|
In lexical semantics, opposites are words that lie in an inherently incompatible binary relationship as in the opposite pairs ''big : small'', ''long : short'', and ''precede : follow''. The notion of incompatibility here refers to the fact that one word in an opposite pair entails that it is not the other pair member. For example, something that is ''long'' entails that it is not ''short''. It is referred to as a 'binary' relationship because there are two members in a set of opposites. The relationship between opposites is known as opposition. A member of a pair of opposites can generally be determined by the question ''What is the opposite of X ?'' The term antonym (and the related antonymy) is commonly taken to be synonymous with opposite, but antonym also has other more restricted meanings. Graded (or gradable) antonyms are word pairs whose meanings are opposite and which lie on a continuous spectrum (hot, cold). Complementary antonyms are word pairs whose meanings are opposite but whose meanings do not lie on a continuous spectrum (push, pull). Relational antonyms are word pairs where opposite makes sense only in the context of the relationship between the two meanings (teacher, pupil). These more restricted meanings may not apply in all scholarly contexts, with Lyons (1968, 1977) defining antonym to mean gradable antonyms, and Crystal (2003) warns that antonymy and antonym should be regarded with care. ==General discussion== Opposites are simultaneously different and similar in meaning. Typically, they differ in only one dimension of meaning, but are similar in most other respects, including similarity in grammar and positions of semantic abnormality. Additionally, not all words have an opposite. Some words are non-opposable. For example, animal or plant species have no binary opposites (other than possible gender opposites such as lion/lioness, etc.); the word platypus therefore has no word that stands in opposition to it (hence the unanswerability of ''What is the opposite of platypus?''). Other words are opposable but have an accidental gap in a given language's lexicon. For example, the word ''devout'' lacks a lexical opposite, but it is fairly easy to conceptualize a parameter of devoutness where ''devout'' lies at the positive pole with a missing member at the negative pole. Opposites of such words can nevertheless sometimes be formed with the prefixes ''un-'' or ''non-'', with varying degrees of naturalness. For example, the word ''undevout'' appears in Webster's dictionary of 1828, while the pattern of ''non-person'' could conceivably be extended to ''non-platypus''. Conversely, some words appear to be a prefixed form of an opposite, but the opposite term does not exist, such as ''inept,'' which appears to be ''in-'' + *''ept;'' such a word is known as an unpaired word. Opposites may be viewed as a special type of incompatibility.〔Incompatibility can be compared to exclusive disjunction in logic.〕 Words that are incompatible create the following type of entailment (where ''X'' is a given word and ''Y'' is a different word incompatible with word X):〔There are four types of entailment useful to lexical semantics: * unilateral entailment: ''It's a fish'' unilaterally entails ''It's an animal''. (It is unilateral, i.e. one-directional, because ''It's an animal'' does not entail ''It's a fish'' since ''it'' could be a dog or a cat or some other animal.) * logical equivalence (or multilateral entailment): ''The party commenced at midnight'' entails ''The party began at midnight'' AND ''The party began at midnight'' also entails ''The party commenced at midnight''. * contrariety: The sentences 'X is blue all over' and 'X is red all over' are contraries since both cannot be simultaneously true. On the Aristotelian square of opposition, the A and E type propositions ('All As are Bs' and 'No As are Bs', respectively) are contraries of each other. Propositions that cannot be simultaneously false (e.g. 'Something is red' and 'Something is not red') are said to be subcontraries. * contradiction: ''It's dead'' entails ''It's not alive'' AND ''It's not alive'' entails ''It's dead'' AND ''It's alive'' entails ''It's not dead'' AND ''It's not dead'' entails ''It's alive''. ''It's dead'' and ''It's alive'' are said to be in a contradictory relation.〕 : sentence ''A is X '' entails sentence ''A is not Y '' 〔Stated differently, if the proposition expressed by the sentence ''A is X '' is TRUE, then the proposition expressed by the sentence ''A is not Y '' is also TRUE.〕 An example of an incompatible pair of words is ''cat : dog'': : ''It's a cat'' entails ''It's not a dog'' 〔It is assumed here that ''it'' has the same referent.〕 This incompatibility is also found in the opposite pairs ''fast : slow'' and ''stationary : moving'', as can be seen below: : ''It's fast'' entails ''It's not slow'' 〔It is also assumed here the reference point of comparison for these adjectives remains the same in both sentences. For example, a rabbit might be fast compared to turtle but slow compared to a sport car. It is essential when determining the relationships between the lexical meaning of words to keep the situational context identical.〕 : ''It's stationary'' entails ''It's not moving'' Cruse (2004) identifies some basic characteristics of opposites: * binarity * inherentness * patency 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Opposite (semantics)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|