Antonymy

Abstract

One of the most fundamental concepts in structural semantics is reflected on, i.e. that of paradigmatic opposition or contrast. It is indicated that to regard antonymy merely as ‘oppositeness of meaning’ is an over-simplification and hence inadequate. Since words may contrast semantically on different dimensions, a distinction between different types of antonyms is called for. It is also shown that for two lexemes to qualify as an antonomous pair, they should semantically be very much the same. This explains why ‘man’ and ‘woman’ are conceived as antonyms, but not ‘typewriter’ and ‘sunset’.