2.4.2 Antonymy
Antonymy are words or expressions which are opposite in meaning. Or two forms with opposite meaning. They can share an aspect of meaning but
opposite or incompatible in some other aspect of meaning. There are three kinds of antonyms, they are:
1. Complementary Pairs
It means the items complementary to each other. The items belong to the set of incompatible terms. We can also say that the negative of one word is
synonymous with the other. For example: male X female and clean X dirty are complementary pairs. If not male = female and if not female = male and also if
not clean = dirty, if not dirty = clean.
Complementary pairs are predicates which come in pairs and between them exhaust all the relevant possibilities. If the one predicates is applicable, then
the other can not be and vice versa. For instance, the words married and single.
These two words cannot be used to refer the same individual at the same time.
There is only one possibility of the fact, such as in the sentence Peter is married or Peter is single. If married is application, then single is not, and vise versa. It
means, to say Peter is married is to say that He is not single. So, to say something is Not the one is to say that is the other.
2. Gradable Pairs
It means the pairs of words have gradation of width, age, size, etc. All are
indicated by the adjectives. For examples: old X new and hard X soft are gradable pairs. If we say not old, it is not necessarily equal with new because when
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someone is not old, it doesn’t mean he is new. Gradable pairs also means the
negative of one word is not synonymous with the other. Gradable pairs can be graded into comparative and superlative degrees by
adding the word more or most and inflection -er or –es to which are being compared. For example, the word big is the opposite of word small. The word big
can be graded into comparative degree bigger or superlative degree biggest, and the word small can be garded into comparative degree smaller or superlative
degree smallest. It is also true of gradable pairs that more of one is less of another. For example: longer is less short, , wider is less narrow, and more bigness is less
smaller. There are two characteristics of gradable pairs, they are marked term and
unmarked term. Marked term means that the term is not so used by the speaker.
In contrary, unmarked term means that the term of the pairs is commonly used by
people in speaking of their language. For example, the expression How high is it? or How wide is it? are commonly used than How low is it? or How narrow is it?.
3. Relational Opposite
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