Semantic contrasts and antonymy

INTRODUCTION

The topic of this report is “Semantic contrasts and antonymy”. The relevance of the chosen topic is undeniable since in linguistics, one of the most important fields is semantic relations, in particular, lexical relation, which includes synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, etc. Antonymy, oppositeness of meaning, has long been regarded as one of the most important semantic relations. Human thinking and language are closely related, and the significance of antonymy in human thinking is inevitably reflected in human language. Lyons (1968) says that human beings have a general tendency to polarize experience and judgment—to think in opposites. And this would explain the existence of a large quantity of antonyms in the vocabulary of human languages.Antonymy is one of the semantic relations that are very useful. Antonym pairs are often used in texts and in a large number of proverbs and idioms to achieve rhetorical effects, for example, “a friend to everybody is a friend to nobody”, no matter it is in common speech or in the literary writing. As a matter of fact, it is even one of the indispensable factors in those figures of speech such as oxymoron, paradox, and irony. In addition, antonymy plays a remarkably significant role in language teaching and learning, which can be shown in many definitions, for example, “tall” is defined as “not short”, “trivial” is said to be “not important”. It is often the same case when lexicographers define a word. Just as Jackson (1988) notes that, antonymy ranks the second (only next to synonymy), in terms of frequency, among the various semantic relations used in dictionary definitions.
The aim of this report is to analyze features, role and main functions of using antonymy and other semantic contrasts in the English Language and literature.
To achieve this goal, it was necessary to solve the following tasks:
- to consider the theoretical aspects of the semintics of contrast and antonyms in the English language, including the classification of the studied means of expression;
- to study the literature concerning the use of antonyms and contrasts as means of expression in English texts;
- to consider the practical use of semantic contrasts and antonyms in English literature, including in the context of genres.
The object of the study is semantic contrasts and antonyms in the English language as a means of expressiveness and transmission of emotions, a deeper philosophical meaning of the utterance. Subject of research: features of the use of contrasts and antonyms in English, literature.
To write this report, articles from electronic periodicals, Internet sources, as well as their own reflections and examples from the fiction of English and American authors were used.

REFERENCES

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