9. Cases of confusion with synonymy.

The first of confusion is hyponymy, or inclusion. The synonymic dominant should not be confused with a generic term or a hyperonym. A generic term is relative. It serves as the name for the notion of the genus as distinguished from the names of the species — hyponyms. For instance, animal is a generic term as compared to the specific names wolf, dog, or mouse (which are called equonyms). Dog, in its turn, may serve a s a generic term for different breeds such as bull-dog, collie, poodle, etc. This type of paradigmatic relation is called hyponymy, or inclusion. Synonymy differs from hyponymy in being a symmetrical relation: if A is a synonym of B, then B is a synonym of A. Hyponymy is asymmetrical: if A is a hyponym of B, then B is the hyperonym of A.

Another case of confusion is lexical variation. Lexical variants, for instance, are examples of free variation in language, in so far as they are not conditioned by contextual environment but are optional with the individual speaker. E. g. northward / norward; whoever / whosoever. The variation can concern morphological or phonological features, or it may be limited to spelling. Compare weazen/weazened ‘shrivelled and dried in appearance’, an adjective used about a person’s face and looks; directly which may be pronounced [di'rektli] or [dai'rektli] and whisky with its spelling variant whiskey. Lexical variants are different from synonyms, because they are characterized by similarity in phonetical or spelling form and identity of both meaning and distribution.

Paronyms may also be confused with synonyms. Paronyms are words with similar pronunciations but different spellings and meanings. For example: accept – verb – ‘to take or receive that which is offered’ - except – preposition – ‘excluding’.

And one more case of confusion with synonymy is malapropism, or the use of an incorrect word in place of a word with a similar sound, resulting in a nonsensical, often humorous utterance. Example: Unfortunately, my affluence over my niece is very small. (‘affluence’ instead of ‘influence’)

10. Antonyms. Structural and semantic classifications.

The term antonym was introduced by L. P. Smith in 1867. Antonyms are defined as words that have opposite meaning, e.g. hot-cold, light-dark, to accept-to reject, up-down.

Modern research in the field of antonymy shows that in the semantic structure of all words which regularly occur in antonymic pairs, a special antonymic connotation can be singled out. We are used to coming across hot and cold together, in the same contexts, that even if we find hot alone, we cannot help thinking of it as not cold.

So, antonyms are two or rarely more words of the same language belonging to the same part of speech, identical in style and nearly identical in distribution, associated and used together so that their denotative meanings render contrary or contradictory notions.

Classification of antonyms

I. Morphological or structural division

Another feature of antonyms is differential component(s) which implies negation of each other. The negation may be explicit, i.e. expressed by morphemes (married - not-married - unmarried), and implicit, i.e. not expressed morphologically, e.g. married - single.

According to the type of negation antonyms are divided into:

· Root/absolute - antonyms with implicit negation (love - hate, late - early)

· Derivational - antonyms with explicit negation; the affixes in them serve to deny the quality stated in the stem: logical - illogical, happiness - unhappiness.

The regular type of derivation antonyms contains negative prefixes: dis-, il-/im-/in-/ir- and un-. Other negative prefixes occur in this function occasionally.

Semantic division - the basis for this division is the type of logical notion.

The difference between absolute and derivational antonyms is not only morphological but semantic as well. To reveal its essence, it’s necessary to turn to logic. Here notions, when contrasted, are subdivided into contradictory and contrary notions.

Contradictory antonyms are mutually opposed and inconsistent. They deny one another and admit no possibility between them: Dead - alive, married - single

Contrary antonyms are so opposed in meaning that the language admits possibilities between them and beyond them: Hot - warm - cold

Many antonyms are explained by means of the negative particle: clean - not dirty, shallow - not deep. Syntactic negation by means of this particle is weaker that the lexical antonymy, e.g.: Not happy - unhappy

Many linguists are inclined to consider conversives another group of antonyms, but this point of view can hardly be accepted. Conversives denote one and the same referent as viewed from different points of view, that of the subject and that of the object, e.g.: Buy - sell, give - receive, cause – suffer. Their interchangeability and contextual behavior are specific. The substitution of a conversive does not change the meaning of a sentence if it is combined with appropriate regular morphological and syntactical changes and selection of appropriate prepositions: He gave her flowers. - She received flowers from him.

Not only words, but set expressions as well, can be grouped into antonymic pairs. The phrase ‘by accident’ can be contrasted to the phrase ‘on purpose’.

Antonyms is the basis of antithesis.