Antonyms and their meanings. What are antonyms in Russian. Antonyms in Russian proverbs

Since the days of school, each of us is familiar with the concept of "antonym". Lexical units (words) with opposite meanings related to the same part of speech are called antonyms. They can be both similar in spelling and sound, or completely different.

Defining antonyms is pretty easy. It is enough to come up with a negative form for any word. But not every lexical unit in the Russian language can be matched with the opposite in meaning. Let's look at examples of antonyms and how to form them.

The concept of "antonym" is of Greek origin and is literally translated as "the opposite of the name." The main feature of such words is the opposite of their lexical meanings. For example, white - black, good - evil, run - go, and so on.

Take note! Opposite words must belong to the same part of speech.

Thus, the noun "light" cannot be matched with the antonym "dark", because it will refer to a group of adjectives. Thus, the pair "light - darkness" will be correct.

An antonymic pair can be composed of the following parts of speech:

noun (mountain - hill, circle - square, love - hate, etc.);
adjective (beautiful - ugly, dirty - clean, white - black, etc.);
(shout - be silent, go - stand, love - hate, laugh - cry, etc.);
adverb (good - bad, fast - slow, always - never, here - there, etc.).

To form words of antonyms, the presence of a qualitative feature in a lexical unit is required, which could change and reach the opposite. It follows from this that most often qualitative adjectives and can be subject to antonymy. For example: big - small, many - few and so on.

Kinds

In Russian, antonyms are different both in structure and meaning, and in their use in speech. By structure, antonymic pairs can be:

One-root. These are lexical units, in the morphemic composition of which the same root. For example: come - leave, progress - regression, beautiful - ugly, attach - set aside. One-root antonymic pairs are formed using various prefixes, which can also be opposite to each other.
Diverse. These are words that have different bases and roots in the morphemic composition (bad - good, morning - evening, native - alien, etc.). Such examples of antonyms in the Russian language can be found much more than examples of single-root antonymic pairs.

By semantic meaning, antonymic pairs are of the following types:

Contrary or opposite. These are such antonymic pairs that allow the presence of an intermediate link in their composition. Such a link usually has a neutral value. For example: love - (indifference) - hatred, past - (present) - future, be silent - (whisper) - speak, etc.
Contradictory or non-gradual. Such words antonyms oppose in their meaning objects, signs and relations that exclude the existence of an intermediate concept. For example: smart - stupid, life - death, good - evil, etc.

According to the use in speech, antonyms are divided into the following types:

General language, which reflect our everyday reality (laugh - cry, leave - come, big - small).
Contextual or copyright. Depending on the context and the will of the author, some words may be subject to antonymy. Such antonymic pairs may not be fixed in dictionaries, but it is in the context that they will carry the opposite meaning from each other.

Take note! Contextual antonyms are used to express the author's assessment and attitude to the described reality.

An example of such antonymy is the well-known fable "Sheep and Wolves", where the author contrasts two different concepts that are not fixed in antonymic dictionaries.

How to explain antonymy to children

To explain to children what an antonym is, it is best to avoid terminology and go straight to practice. Examples for children should be simple concepts that affect their daily lives.

For example, in pictures it is easier for a child to understand the difference between antonymic pairs: big - small, beautiful - ugly, dirty - clean, white - black, and so on.

It is also important to explain to the child that not all words in the language can be matched with others with the opposite meaning. So that he can perceive this, write separately on a piece of paper a few words that cannot be antonymized. Thus, the child will be able to draw certain conclusions and remember exceptions.

Useful video

Summing up

Antonymy in Russian is a rather complex phenomenon that has been studied by many linguists for a long time. From an early age, teachers and parents try to explain to the younger generation the difference between synonyms and antonyms. And these two concepts can also be called words with opposite meanings. The Russian language is full of exceptions, but at the same time it is very beautiful and multifaceted. Antonymy is only a small part of it, but it is very important to study.

In contact with

Antonyms (gr. anti- against + onyma- name) - these are words that are different in sound, having directly opposite meanings: truth - lie, good - evil, speak - be silent. Antonyms, as a rule, refer to one part of speech and form pairs.

Modern lexicology considers synonymy and antonymy as extreme, limiting cases, on the one hand, of interchangeability, on the other hand, of opposition of words in content. At the same time, synonymous relations are characterized by semantic similarity, while antonymic relations are characterized by semantic difference.

Antonymy in the language is presented `narrower than synonymy: only words enter into antonymic relations that are correlative on some basis - qualitative, quantitative, temporal, spatial and belonging to the same category of objective reality as mutually exclusive concepts: beautiful - ugly, many - few, morning - evening, remove - bring closer. Words of other meanings usually do not have antonyms; compare: house, thinking, writing, twenty, Kyiv, Caucasus. Most antonyms characterize qualities ( good - bad, smart - stupid, native - alien, dense - rare and under.); there are quite a few that point to spatial and temporal relationships ( large - small, spacious - cramped, high - low, wide - narrow; early - late, day - night); fewer antonymic pairs with quantitative meaning ( many - few; single - numerous). There are opposite names of actions, states ( cry - laugh, rejoice - grieve), but these are few.

The development of antonymic relations in vocabulary reflects our perception of reality in all its contradictory complexity and interdependence. Therefore, contrasting words, as well as the concepts they denote, are not only opposed to each other, but are also closely related. Word Kind, for example, evokes in our minds the word evil, distant reminiscent of close, accelerate- O slow down.

Antonyms "are at the extreme points of the lexical paradigm", but between them in the language there may be words that reflect the indicated feature to a different extent, i.e., its decrease or increase. For example: rich- prosperous - poor - poor - beggar; harmful- harmless - useless - useful . Such opposition implies a possible degree of strengthening of a sign, quality, action, or gradation (lat. gradient- gradual increase). Semantic gradation (gradation), thus, is characteristic only of those antonyms whose semantic structure contains an indication of the degree of quality: young - old, big - small, small - large and under. Other antonymic pairs are devoid of the sign of gradualness: up - down, day - night, life - death, man - woman.

Antonyms that have a sign of gradualness can be interchanged in speech to give the statement a polite form; yes, it's better to say thin, how skinny; elderly, how old. Words used to eliminate the harshness or rudeness of a phrase are called euphemisms (gr. eu- good + phemi- I say). On this basis, sometimes they talk about antonyms-euphemisms, which express the meaning of the opposite in a softened form.

In the lexical system of the language, antonyms-conversives can also be distinguished (lat. conversion- change). These are words expressing the relationship of opposites in the original (direct) and modified (reverse) statements: Alexander gave book to Dmitry.- Dmitry took Alexander's book Professor accepts credit for the trainee.- Trainee surrenders credit to the professor.

There is also intra-word antonymy in the language - the antonymy of the meanings of polysemantic words, or enantiosemy (gr. enantios- opposite + sema - sign). This phenomenon is observed in polysemantic words that develop mutually exclusive meanings. For example, the verb depart can mean "to return to normal, feel better", but it can also mean "to die, say goodbye to life." Enantiosemy becomes the reason for the ambiguity of such statements, for example: Editor viewed these lines; I listened to divertissement; Speaker misspoke and under.

By structure, antonyms are divided into heterogeneous (day - night) and single-root ( come - go, revolution - counter-revolution). The former constitute a group of proper lexical antonyms, the latter - lexico-grammatical. In single-root antonyms, the opposite of meaning is caused by various prefixes, which are also capable of entering into antonymic relations; compare: V lie down - You lay down, at put - from put, behind cover - from cover. Therefore, the opposition of such words is due to word formation. However, it should be borne in mind that adding prefixes to quality adjectives, adverbs not without- most often gives them the meaning of only a weakened opposite ( young - not young), so that the contrast of their meaning in comparison with non-prefixed antonyms turns out to be "muffled" ( middle-aged It doesn't mean "old" yet. Therefore, not all prefix formations can be attributed to antonyms in the strict sense of this term, but only those that are extreme members of the antonymic paradigm: successful - unsuccessful, strong - powerless.

Antonyms, as already mentioned, usually form a pair correlation in the language. However, this does not mean that a particular word can have one antonym. Antonymic relations make it possible to express the opposition of concepts in an "open", polynomial series, cf .: concrete - abstract, abstract; cheerful - sad, sad, dull, boring.

In addition, each member of an antonymic pair or antonymic series can have its own synonyms that do not intersect in antonymy. Then a certain system is formed in which synonymous units are located vertically, and antonymic units are located horizontally. For example:

smart - stupid to be sad - to rejoice reasonable - stupid to be sad - to have fun wise - brainless to yearn - to exult

Such a correlation of synonymous and antonymic relations reflects the systemic connections of words in the vocabulary. The interrelation of ambiguity and antonymy of lexical units also points to the consistency.

Different in sound and spelling, having directly opposite lexical meanings, for example: “truth” - “false”, “kind” - “evil”, “speak” - “keep silent”.

The lexical units of the vocabulary of a language turn out to be closely related not only on the basis of their associative connection by similarity or contiguity as lexico-semantic variants of a polysemantic word. Most of the words of the language do not contain a feature capable of opposition, therefore, antonymic relations are impossible for them, however, in a figurative sense, they can acquire an antonym. Thus, in contextual antonymy, antonymic relations of words with a direct meaning are possible, and then these pairs of words carry an emphatic load and perform a special stylistic function.

Antonyms are possible for such words, the meanings of which contain opposite qualitative shades, but the meanings are always based on a common feature (weight, height, feeling, time of day, etc.). Also, only words belonging to the same grammatical or stylistic category can be opposed. Consequently, words belonging to different parts of speech or lexical levels cannot become linguistic antonyms.

There are no proper names, pronouns, numeral antonyms.

Typology of antonymic relations

Antonyms according to the type of concepts expressed:

contrastive correlates - such opposites that mutually complement each other to the whole, without transitional links; they are in relation to the privative opposition. Examples: bad - good, false - true, alive - dead.
counter correlates - antonyms expressing polar opposites within one essence in the presence of transitional links - internal gradation; they are in relation to the gradual opposition. Examples: black (- gray -) white, old (- elderly - middle-aged -) young, large (- medium -) small.
vector correlates are antonyms expressing different directions of actions, signs, social phenomena, etc. Examples: enter - exit, descend - rise, ignite - extinguish, revolution - counter-revolution.
Converses are words that describe the same situation from the point of view of different participants. Examples: buy - sell, husband - wife, teach - learn, lose - win, lose - find, young - old.
enantiosemy - the presence of opposite meanings in the structure of the word. Examples: to lend money to someone - to borrow money from someone, to surround with tea - to treat and not to treat.
pragmatic - words that are regularly opposed in the practice of their use, in contexts (pragmatics - "action"). Examples: soul - body, mind - heart, earth - sky.

By structure, antonyms are:

heterogeneous (forward - backward);
single root - are formed with the help of prefixes that are opposite in meaning: enter - exit, or with the help of a prefix added to the original word (monopoly - antimonopoly).

From the point of view of language and speech, antonyms are divided into:

linguistic (usual) - antonyms that exist in the language system (rich - poor);
contextual (contextual, speech, occasional) - antonyms that occur in a certain context (to check for the presence of this type, you need to reduce them to a language pair) - (golden - copper half, that is, expensive - cheap). They often appear in proverbs.

From the point of view of action, antonyms are:

proportionate - action and reaction: get up - go to bed, get rich - get poorer;
disproportionate - action and lack of action (in the broad sense): ignite - extinguish, think - think over.

Antonyms in poetry

Write a review on the article "Antonyms"

Notes

Synonyms. Antonyms.

Literature

Lvov M. R. Dictionary of antonyms of the Russian language: More than 2000 antonyms. steam / Ed. L. A. Novikova. - 4th ed., stereotype. - M.: Rus. yaz., 1988. - 384 p. (mistaken.)

An excerpt characterizing Antonyms

“Well, well…” he said.
“I know that she loves ... she will love you,” Princess Mary corrected herself.
Before she had time to say these words, Pierre jumped up and, with a frightened face, grabbed Princess Mary by the hand.
- Why do you think? Do you think that I can hope? You think?!
“Yes, I think so,” said Princess Mary, smiling. - Write to your parents. And entrust me. I'll tell her when I can. I wish it. And my heart feels that it will be.
- No, it can't be! How happy I am! But it can't be... How happy I am! No, it can not be! - said Pierre, kissing the hands of Princess Mary.
- You go to St. Petersburg; it is better. I'll write to you, she said.
- To Petersburg? Drive? Okay, yes, let's go. But tomorrow I can come to you?
The next day, Pierre came to say goodbye. Natasha was less lively than in the old days; but on this day, sometimes looking into her eyes, Pierre felt that he was disappearing, that neither he nor she was anymore, but there was one feeling of happiness. “Really? No, it can’t be,” he said to himself at her every look, gesture, word that filled his soul with joy.
When, bidding her farewell, he took her thin, thin hand, he involuntarily held it a little longer in his.
“Is it possible that this hand, this face, these eyes, all this treasure of female charm, alien to me, will this all be forever mine, familiar, the same as I am for myself? No, It is Immpossible!.."
“Farewell, Count,” she said to him loudly. “I will be waiting for you very much,” she added in a whisper.
And these simple words, the look and facial expression that accompanied them, for two months, were the subject of Pierre's inexhaustible memories, explanations and happy dreams. “I will be waiting for you very much ... Yes, yes, as she said? Yes, I will be waiting for you. Ah, how happy I am! What is it, how happy I am!” Pierre said to himself.

In Pierre's soul now nothing similar happened to what happened in her in similar circumstances during his courtship with Helen.
He did not repeat, as then, with painful shame, the words he had spoken, he did not say to himself: “Ah, why didn’t I say this, and why, why did I say “je vous aime” then?” [I love you] Now, on the contrary, he repeated every word of hers, his own, in his imagination with all the details of her face, smile, and did not want to subtract or add anything: he only wanted to repeat. There was no doubt now whether what he had done was good or bad, there was no shadow now. Only one terrible doubt sometimes crossed his mind. Is it all in a dream? Was Princess Mary wrong? Am I too proud and arrogant? I believe; and suddenly, as it should happen, Princess Marya will tell her, and she will smile and answer: “How strange! He was right, wrong. Doesn't he know that he is a man, just a man, and I? .. I am completely different, higher.
Only this doubt often came to Pierre. He didn't make any plans either. It seemed to him so incredibly impending happiness that as soon as this happened, nothing could be further. Everything ended.
Joyful, unexpected madness, for which Pierre considered himself incapable, took possession of him. The whole meaning of life, not for him alone, but for the whole world, seemed to him to consist only in his love and in the possibility of her love for him. Sometimes all people seemed to him busy with only one thing - his future happiness. It sometimes seemed to him that they all rejoiced in the same way as he himself, and only tried to hide this joy, pretending to be occupied with other interests. In every word and movement he saw hints of his happiness. He often surprised people who met him with his significant, expressing secret consent, happy looks and smiles. But when he realized that people might not know about his happiness, he felt sorry for them with all his heart and felt a desire to somehow explain to them that everything they were doing was complete nonsense and trifles not worthy of attention.
When he was offered to serve, or when some general state affairs and war were discussed, assuming that the happiness of all people depended on such or such an outcome of such an event, he listened with a meek, condoling smile and surprised the people who spoke to him with his strange remarks. But both those people who seemed to Pierre to understand the real meaning of life, that is, his feeling, and those unfortunate people who obviously did not understand this - all people in this period of time seemed to him in such a bright light of the feeling shining in him that without the slightest effort, he immediately, meeting with any person, saw in him everything that was good and worthy of love.

Even if you have already graduated from school a long time ago, it is still not too late to figure out what antonyms are, including contextual ones. Antonyms are words of one part of speech with directly opposite lexical meanings, contrasting phenomena: good - evil, truth - lie, speak - be silent, much - little, up - down, appear - disappear. Antonyms are pairs of words that are always based on a common feature (height, weight, quality, quantity, feeling, time of day, space), but the meanings are opposite.

Now it should be very clear what antonyms are. However, this is not all the necessary information. Proper names, numerals and pronouns have no antonyms. However, service words can also be connected by antonyms: for and against, with and without (They like to drink tea with and without sugar).

Classification of antonym words

By structure, antonyms are divided into:

heterogeneous (forward - backward);
single root: they are formed with the help of prefixes opposite in meaning (enter - exit), as well as with the help of a prefix that is added to the original word (monopoly - antimonopoly).

Usually, words of different roots are referred to as antonyms, but some linguists consider such pairs of words as antonyms: calm - restless, big - small, love - not love. Here the antonym is formed with the help of the negative particle "not", the prefixes "demon", "not", etc.

From the point of view of language and speech, there are antonyms:

linguistic (usual): they exist in the language system (loud - quiet);
speech (occasional): arise in a certain context. They are often found in proverbs and poetry.

So what are contextual antonyms? Contextual antonyms are words that are opposed in a particular context. This phenomenon is of an individual authorial nature: wolves and sheep (as you understand, the polarity of the meanings of these words is not fixed in the language). The writer can discover opposite qualities in certain concepts and contrast them in speech: sunlight - moonlight, one year - the whole life, not a mother, but a daughter. The opposition of such concepts is not reproduced in the language. These are occasional (contextual, speech) antonyms.

Antonyms in terms of action are:

proportionate: denote action and reaction (get rich - get poorer, get up - go to bed);
disproportionate: in a broad sense, they denote action and lack of action (ignite - do not ignite, think - think over).

Polysemantic words and their antonyms

In different meanings, a polysemantic word can have different antonyms.

For example: fresh bread - stale bread, fresh thought - hackneyed thought, fresh evening - stuffy evening, etc.

Antithesis

Antonyms can serve as a means of poetic expression. This technique is called antithesis. Basically, the antithesis is characteristic of poetic and oratorical speech: "black evening, white snow" (A. A. Blok). The antithesis is also found in the titles: "Thick and Thin" (A.P. Chekhov), "Fathers and Sons" (I.S. Turgenev),

So, now you know what antonyms are, examples of these pairs of words will not be difficult for you. Remember what contextual antonyms and antithesis are.

" of Greek origin and is translated as "opposite".

Antonyms are words with the opposite meaning, expressing it with the help of paradigmatic connections.

Antonyms are a very interesting phenomenon of the language, because in the mind of a person are stored in the form of an antonymic pair.

Despite the fact that antonyms are opposed to each other by all their content, their semantic structure is extremely homogeneous. As a rule, antonyms differ in one differential feature.

For example, a pair of antonyms "-" has common semantic features (quality, mood) and only one differential (positive and negative mood).

Due to the homogeneity of the semantic structure, antonyms have almost completely matching compatibility.

Types of antonyms

There are 2 types of antonyms:

1) multi-rooted and single-rooted.

One-root antonyms usually form a non-prefixed and a prefixed word. Examples: friend - foe; bad - not bad; enter - exit; come - walk away.

Different root antonyms are completely different in their external appearance. Examples: stale - fresh; life death.

2) gradual, nongradual and vector antonyms.

Gradual antonyms express the opposite, which implies the existence of intermediate steps between the two extreme points. Examples: brilliant - talented - gifted - average abilities - mediocre - mediocre; - capable - sensible - not stupid - average abilities - stupid - limited - stupid - stupid.

Non-gradual antonyms are concepts between which there is not and cannot be an intermediate degree. Examples: true - false; alive - dead; free - busy; married - single.

Vector antonyms denote the opposite direction of actions, features, qualities and properties. Examples: forget - remember; increase - decrease; supporter - opponent.