Antonymy(from the Greek anty - 'against' and ónyma 'name') - the phenomenon of the opposite of the meanings of language units.

Lexical antonyms- these are words of one part of speech, opposite in meaning: (high - low, smart - stupid, good - bad, enter - exit, happiness - misfortune) different in sound and spelling and having the opposite lexical meaning.

Scope of use:

Not all words have antonyms. Have no antonyms nouns with specific meaning(door, TV) numerals, most pronouns, as well as proper names. As a rule, words with qualitative, quantitative, spatial, temporal semantics have antonyms. The most common antonyms among quality adjectives and quality adverbs, less - among verbs and nouns.

Depending on the type of opposition expressed, antonyms are divided into several classes:

1) antonyms expressing qualitative opposite(good-bad, good-evil). They form a stepped opposition, for example. easy (not difficult - medium difficulty - not easy - difficult) therefore they are sometimes called gradual.

2) antonyms expressing logical opposite ( e.g. assemble-disassemble) or opposite direction of action, signs, properties: get light - get dark, fly in - fly away, forward - back, up - down

3) antonyms expressing complementary opposite, the negation of one gives the value of the other (not+true=false) antonymic pair true-false. there is no middle, intermediate element between them: truth - falsehood, falsehood; living - inanimate, dead; sighted - blind, blind; married - unmarried, single;

The ambiguity of a word leads to the appearance of antonyms that correlate with different meanings of the word (for example, antonyms for the word fresh: fresh-stale, fresh-salty (cucumber), fresh-dirty (collar), fresh-warm (wind), fresh-old (magazine).

In terms of structure:

Ø One-root antonyms are represented mainly by verbs and verbal derivatives and are formed by attaching prefixes opposite in meaning to the same word (climb - get off, enter - exit, tie - untie, fly in - fly away, arrival - departure) or by attaching prefixes to the word that give it the opposite meaning (literate - illiterate, assure - disassure, democratic - anti-democratic).

Among single-root antonyms stand out enantiosemes and antonyms - euphemisms.

A rare but interesting case is the so-called " intra-word antonymy" (enantiosemy), when different meanings of a polysemantic word have opposite meanings: borrow ‘borrow’ and lend ‘lend’, blow out the candle ‘put out the fire’ and blow out the stove ‘light the fire’.

· Antonyms-euphemisms they express the relationship of opposites in a less sharp, softened form and differ from each other by the prefix NOT: big - small, high - low.

Ø heterogeneous antonyms are found among words of different parts of speech (young - old, light - darkness, high - low, yes - no, love - hate).

Depending on the type of logical opposition, antonyms are divided into:

1) counter (gradual, qualitative) - Contrary antonyms express opposite concepts associated with the maximum and minimum manifestation of quality, between which there are intermediate links - concepts that characterize a greater or lesser degree of manifestation of quality: young - middle-aged - elderly - old. Between the antonyms young - old there are intermediate links - middle-aged, elderly. 31 This group of antonyms includes qualitative adjectives and words derived from them, as well as designations of spatial coordinates: the day before yesterday - yesterday - today - tomorrow - the day after tomorrow.

2) contradictory - Contradictor antonyms do not have an intermediate link. The generic concept in this case is represented by two specific concepts that complement each other: high - low, true - false.

3) vector- Vector antonyms express the opposite direction of actions, signs and properties. This group of antonyms is represented by verbs, verbal nouns, adverbs, adjectives. : guess - guess, get in - get off.

26. Taboo. Euphemisms and the phenomenon of "political correctness".

Taboo - restriction or complete prohibition of word usage, determined by extralinguistic factors: religious considerations, superstitions and prejudices, censorship and political prohibitions, traditions. Thus, among peoples at an early stage of social development (Polynesians, Australians, Zulus, Eskimos, etc.), the taboo of words arises on the basis of mythological beliefs. Subject to ban (taboo) death symbol, names of diseases, names of gods and spirits; often taboo is the name of the animal that serves as the main object of hunting for this tribe. All this is based on a naive identification of these "things" and the words that name them, which often leads to the tabooing of other consonant words or the same words in other meanings. To replace the taboo of words, other words are needed - euphemisms.

Euphemisms are substitute, permitted words that are used instead of prohibited (taboo). By carefully observing the speech acts of contemporaries, one can understand that today taboos are imposed not only on words, objects, concepts. Taboo can be understood in a more profound linguistic aspect. Namely: the taboo of linguistic units - tone, intonation. It seemed that the processes of tabooing and euphemization should have become obsolete in a civilized society. But they persist and, moreover, develop to this day. It would be trivial to consider the themes and spheres of modern euphemisms such as "funeral services" instead of "funeral", "physical elimination" instead of "murder".

An analysis of euphemisms in various spheres of social and everyday life made it possible to single out several groups.

1. Certain parts of the body associated with the "bottom of the body"". Objects of this kind are such that both their direct and euphemistic designations in everyday speech are perceived by the majority as not quite decent, for example, colloquial and slang designations of male and female genital organs (see: Baldaev et al., 1992); among physicians, as is known, Latin is used for these purposes.

2. Relations between the sexes. To denote close relationships, intimate connection, physical intimacy, the verbs “meet”, “be friends”, “walk” (with someone) are colloquially used. For example: “We didn’t have anything with him” – physical closeness is meant.

3. Illness and death. Wed: to be unwell, to feel bad instead of "sick", "sick". It is very bad - about a hopelessly ill person; left us, he was gone instead of "died"; death instead of "death"; lethal outcome as a medical euphemism that replaces “death”, etc. The themes of death and burial, if these events are relevant (either coincide with the moment of speech or are separated from it by a short period of time), are verbalized almost exclusively with the help of euphemisms. Wed: dead and outdated. and simple. dead, he is no longer with us; betray the earth. The actions of institutions involved in the organization of funerals are denoted in the official language by a vague and euphemistic in nature turnover ritual services. Wed also in the speech of physicians: to lose the patient, that is, to allow the patient to die, not to cope with the disease; old people leave (meaning "die").

These areas of euphemization can be called personal; they concern the private life and personality of the speaker, the addressee and third parties.

The phenomenon of euphemism is also observed in various areas. social life person and society. It is important to emphasize that in modern conditions, it is precisely the methods and means of euphemization that affect socially significant topics, areas of human activity, his relations with other people, society, and power that are receiving the greatest development. There are several groups of euphemisms in professional areas of human activity:

1. The traditional area in which euphemistic means of expression are actively used is diplomacy. Indeed, many words and phrases that are frequently used in modern mass media, such as go to extreme measures, unpredictable consequences, confrontation (in relation to situations when there is a war, although it may be local)

2. Repressive actions of the authorities, actions that may cause a negative assessment of the population. detain instead of "arrest"; capital punishment instead of “death penalty”, to apply sanctions (this turnover is used in a very vague sense: it can mean bringing to criminal responsibility, imprisonment, economic or military blockade of regions and entire states), etc.

3. State and military secrets and secrets. Such secrets and secrets include the production of weapons, certain types of equipment, the social and numerical composition of institutions, the profile of their work, etc. As examples, we will give the euphemistic use of words and phrases: object, product, product, box, development of unusual types weapons.

5. Relations between various national and social groups, the status of these groups. Non-indigenous population - this phrase can be used in relation to Russians living in the Baltic states or other former republics of the USSR; ethnic cleansing - the destruction in a particular region (city, republic) of persons who do not belong to the dominant nation in this region; was first used in relation to the situation in Yugoslavia, where the Serbs destroyed the Muslims, the Croats - the Serbs on the territory of Croatia

6. Some types of professions, the euphemistic designation of which aims to increase the prestige of these professions or hide the negative impression of the type of occupation designated by the direct name. Machine milking operator, slaughterhouse operator, cleaning operator (cf. the former vacuum cleaner, which ceased to fulfill its euphemistic function), controller instead of “warden”, the performer - about a person who carries out death sentences (cf. executioner)

"name, designation"), semantic opposite. Antonyms are called words (more precisely, words considered in their specific meaning), opposed to each other according to the semantic feature that forms the core of their meaning, for example hot Cold,fast slow, ANTONYMY(from the Greek "against" and "name, designation"), semantic opposition. Antonyms are called words (more precisely, words considered in their specific meaning), opposed to each other according to the semantic feature that forms the core of their meaning, for example hot Cold,fast slow,to be present - to be absent. At the same time, antonyms have much in common in their meaning, belong to the same part of speech and can be used in one statement in opposition; cf. He is not rich,but the poor. And rich, and poor are adjectives, and both words characterize a person's property status, but point to opposite ends of the wealth scale. The meaning of one of the antonyms can often be explained through the other with the help of negation - thus, antonyms are one of the means of paraphrasing; cf. forbid - do not allow,absent - not present. Often antonyms are formed in this way - with the help of the prefix not-: possible - impossible,successful - unsuccessful(it must be borne in mind, however, that the addition of the prefix not- does not always give an antonym: cf. fierce - furious). In different meanings, the same word can have different antonyms: cf. light - heavy (bag),easy - difficult(a task).

Despite the fact that antonymy belongs to the number of traditional and generally accepted linguistic terms, there are still disputes about what exact meaning should be given to this concept and what pairs of words it is reasonable to classify as antonyms. In particular, the very idea of ​​semantic opposition is interpreted differently. Thus, it is sometimes stated that pairs of the type to be present - to be absent,single - married, whose members differ from each other by a simple negation, are not opposite, but contradictory, and in this sense their antonymy is doubtful. The true opposite is represented in pairs cold - hot,start - end, pointing to different ends of the scale or coordinate line, between which intermediate values ​​\u200b\u200bare located (respectively warm,chill;middle). Meanwhile, in pairs like to be present - to be absent,alive - dead the attribute itself is arranged not gradually, but binary, so that the negation of one value is equivalent to the affirmation of another, and there is no intermediate link between them: the two values ​​of the attribute divide the entire scale without a trace. Therefore, in a binary opposition, inconsistency coincides with opposite. Thus, the absence of an intermediate link should not be considered a reason for not recognizing pairs of the type to be present - to be absent antonyms.

In this regard, it is worth paying attention to the fact that, unlike synonyms that words of various semantic types can have, only some classes of words can have antonyms. So, not only do not exist, but also theoretically impossible antonyms for the words table,lilac,cut,when etc.

There are several semantic types of opposed lexemes that researchers recognize as antonyms more or less unanimously.

Antonyms are always recognized as pairs indicating the beginning and termination of some action or state: start - stop (stop, in fact, means "to start not"), to come in("going, start being in") - go out(“going, stop being in”), ignite - extinguish etc.

A close type of antonymy is represented by pairs of the type attach - unhook or break - make. Truth, verbs break and to fix imply actions that are quite different in nature, but more importantly, in their meaning, the initial and resulting situation (unbroken and broken state) seem to change places.

A large class of words that are usually (though not always) recognized as antonyms are pairs that differ from each other by a simple negation: wet – dry, observe – violate. Observe means "do not violate" violate- "do not follow".

Finally, there are pairs of antonyms that point to opposite ends of some scale: strong - weak,many - few etc.

Very often in the language there is inaccurate antonymy, in which words differ in some additional elements of meaning. For example, fear - hope,small - huge. An exact antonym for the word small is big, a huge includes an additional indication of a high degree of quality.

Sometimes they talk about the so-called contextual (situational) antonyms, i.e. words that are antonymous to each other only in a certain context. Yes, the words eyes and eyes are synonyms in the language, but in the phrase She didn't have eyes, she had eyes. they can be considered as antonyms. It should be noted that contextual antonyms are very different from genuine or linguistic antonyms.

A special case of antonymy is enantiosemy - the presence of opposite meanings for the same word. For example, re-elect can mean "elect for a new term" or "not elect for a new term". Most often, in this case, we are not talking about exact antonymy; cf. view in the sense of "look" and in the sense of "not notice". Sometimes people talk about enantiosemy in connection with the ironic use of evaluative words, for example lovely! or Great! in the sense of "very bad". However, the concept of enantiosemy is of greatest importance for the study of the history of language. Semantic evolution often occurs in such a way that a word develops opposite meanings. Yes, antonyms Start and the end come from the same root, and the word weather in different dialects of the Russian language there is as a meaning "good weather" (cf. literary bad weather), and the meaning of "bad weather".

Pairs of words should be distinguished from antonyms, which are also in some sense opposed to each other, but not opposite in meaning. For example, words sell and buy are not antonyms, but converses, i.e. indicate the actions that are carried out by different participants in the same situation. The words die and kill- also not antonyms: kill is a causative to die, i.e. indicates the reason. How about antonyms for die one can consider such verbs as be born or come alive.

In speech, antonyms are used in many cases in order to soften the assessment, to make it less categorical: instead of saying She is ugly or She is old, they say She is not a beauty,She is not young. If a person cannot or does not want to confidently state The film is interesting he might say The movie is not boring.. Antonymic pairs are often used in various kinds of proverbs, sayings, as well as in literary texts to create a contrast: The well-fed does not understand the hungry;neither alive nor dead; The rich fell in love with the poor,/ The scientist fell in love with a stupid,/ Fell in love with ruddy - pale,/ I fell in love with a good - harmful: / Golden - a copper half(M. Tsvetaeva). Moreover, in the last example, only pairs rich - poor and ruddy - pale are real antonyms, pairs scientist is stupid,good - bad consist of very inaccurate antonyms, and the members of the pair gold - copper half are only contextual antonyms. However, all pairs are equally contrasting. Thus, the presence of a contrast in itself does not in any way indicate that we have a pair of antonyms. Contrast is much broader than antonymy, it can be based, for example, on associative differences between words, while antonymy requires certain logical relationships between them. So, in the famous Pushkin lines Wave and stone,/ Poetry and prose,ice and fire / Not so different- there is not a single pair of linguistic antonyms.

An important place in the lexical system of the Russian language is occupied by words linked by opposite meanings. For example:
He didn't like poorly dressed people. Tired. Sick. Ugly. awkward. Shy. sad. They hindered his energetic progress. They irritated his visual perception of the world. However, if he had delved into himself, he would have found it. That he still needs them, as a background against which he would stand out - immaculately dressed. Always ready to fight for himself, healthy, young, handsome, dexterous, shameless, not allowing himself such a luxury of the poor as sadness. (E. Evtushenko).
The ability of words to enter into a relationship of opposition, to denote opposite concepts is called antonymy.
Antonymy is an expression of contrast within the same essence, its opposite definition.
The separation and connection of the phenomena of the surrounding reality by contrast is one of the common operations of human logic. Therefore, when considering antonymy, much attention is paid to some logical concepts, primarily the concept of opposites.
The basis for the opposition of words is the common semantic components in their meanings. In other words, only those meanings that are not just different, but correlative can be antonymous. For example, the sign heavy and light characterize the object by weight. This semantic generic component "weight" is common to them. Heavy - large in weight, light - small in weight. they are related to the generic seme, but differ in species. Differentiating this or that essence, antonyms, as it were, signs of unity "forked" into opposites simultaneously determine the limit of some quality, property, action, point to the inseparable connection of opposites. For example, the words low and high (body temperature); came late and early. These words are perceived as components of one whole.
The essence of antonymy is the expression of the mutual ultimate negation of semantically homogeneous units.
The nature of the opposition can be different:

• Presence / absence of a sign: healthy (to have health) - sick (not to have health), sleep (to be in a state of sleep) - to be awake (not to be in a state of sleep). The semantic components in them are expressed by the negation of "not" wet - dry (not wet).
• Start of action / termination of action, its end: turn on - turn off, speak - be silent.
• The magnitude of the sign can be opposed: large - small, fast - slow.
• Places: right - left.
• Spaces: north - south.
• Time: day - night, etc.

Most often, opposition is observed in the presence of a qualitative feature, therefore, among antonyms, qualitative adjectives, adverbs formed from qualitative adjectives, as well as nouns and verbs predominate.
Words that are related to each other must be of the same part of speech. An antonymic pair, composed of words from different parts of speech, is allowed only in a specific text with a specific stylistic function.
Not all words enter into antonymic relations. They do not have antonyms: names of nouns. with a specific meaning (table, hand); numerals (excluding one / two); most terms; Not everyone refers to antonyms words with different stylistic coloring: hand - hands, although they can be opposed.

More on the topic The concept of antonymy and antonyms:

1. Antonymy. The concept of antonyms. Antonym types. Antonyms are usual and contextual.

Antonymy and antonyms

Antonymy is the opposite of language units in a semantic sense. Antonyms are words of the same part of speech that are opposite in meaning. For example:

He didn't love badly dressed. Tired. Sick. Old. Ugly. awkward. Shy. sad. They interfered with his energetic advancement. They irritated his visual perception of the world. However, if he had delved into himself, he would still have found that he needed them, as a background against which he should stand out - immaculately dressed, always ready to fight for myself, healthy, young, beautiful, dexterous, shameless who does not allow himself such a luxury of the poor as sadness - Igor Seleznev ( E. Evtushenko).

In this passage, adjectives are clearly contrasted in meaning. sick — healthy, old — young, ugly — beautiful, awkward — dexterous, shy — shameless, adverbs poorly — impeccably(dressed), less opposed tired and the phrase ready to fight. The division and connection of the phenomena of the surrounding reality by contrast is one of the common operations of human logic. Therefore, when considering antonymy, much attention is paid to some logical concepts, primarily the concept of opposites. The latter is understood primarily as the opposition between the phenomena of the real world: from philosophical categories to everyday objects, their signs and actions. For clarity, we give an excerpt from the novel by E. Yevtushenko "Berry Places".

No matter how hard she [wife] tried, Seleznev Sr."everything is bad sat." I had to endlessly alter it, and it cost her a lot of nerves, because it was almost impossible to drag her husband into the atelier. On the Seleznev Jr. everything was sitting like poured. Seleznev Sr. still has not got rid of the terrible, in her opinion, habit of smoking Belomor Canal. Seleznev -Jr smoked only american cigarettes. Seleznev -older could not learn a single phrase from Russian-English phrasebook. Seleznev Jr. spoke brilliant English and good French. Seleznev Sr. did not study no sports. Seleznev Jr. played tennis, skiing and water skiing, He practiced figure skating and karate. Seleznev Sr. endlessly reread the same book - "War and Peace". Seleznev- Jr was reading " Tropic of Cancer" Henry Miller in the original.

The whole presentation in the above passage is based on the opposition of persons, objects, their signs and actions. In most cases, these oppositions are expressed by syntactic constructions: Seleznev -older— Seleznev- Jr; didn't sit well — sat like a glove; could not learn a single phrase from the Russian-English phrasebook — spoke brilliant English etc. But in one case - in the appendix to the surname - the opposition is expressed by antonyms: older —Jr.

The opposite can be embedded in the internal content of one and the same phenomenon and be found in the external forms of its existence, also expressed by syntactic constructions and antonyms. For example:

• 1) I took life into myself. I knew her in struggles and labors. And let old age come. I drank sagebrush and honey — not fresh drink (Ya. Rylenkov). Different types of drinks are mentioned here, the names of which in one case are contrasted according to the taste of drinks and are expressed by antonyms ( sagebrush and honey), and in another case - by the presence of general taste qualities in drinks (words wormwood and honey- phrase unleavened drink);
• 2) Frowningly said to the waiter: "A portion of ham," adding: - leaner..." The waiters had already studied it and carried it fatter(E. Yevtushenko);
• 3) Article 105. Compound and disconnection multiple claims. 1. The plaintiff has the right to combine in one statement of claim several claims related to each other ( Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation). In examples 2 and 3, the opposite inherent in different types of object ( lean and oily ham) and different types of procedural actions ( compound and disconnection claims), is expressed only by antonyms.

The opposition expressed by antonyms can be of two kinds, which is determined by the presence or absence of a middle link between the two extreme points of the corresponding concepts.

In some cases, such a link exists, for example: the wind can be not only weak, strong, but also moderate) between cold and hot tea possible warm; among loving and hating anything meet indifferent; stood out among the peasants poor, fists, as well as middle peasants. In most cases, there is no intermediate link between antonyms: false — truthful, Russophiles — Russophobes, main — secondary, be proud — be ashamed, Earth — sky.

Antonyms are divided into full and partial (conditional). Antonyms are called complete if they denote opposites in their extreme manifestation, regardless of whether there are intermediate links between them or not.

Partial antonyms name objects, their signs or actions that are not at the extreme positions of their logical opposition, but are only conditionally opposed. For example, in grammar use the terms: letter and sound, vocalism and consonantism, vowels and consonants, topic and rhema. These terms cannot be recognized as antonyms in the full sense of the word, i.e. naming concepts in their extreme opposition.

Rather, they are words denoting concepts that are conditionally opposed to each other, in this case, within the framework of the description of the language system.

Antonyms are divided depending on the morphemic composition:

■ antonyms - words of different roots: repressed - rehabilitated, destroy - restore, cooling - warming, left - right, own - strangers;

■ antonyms - single-root words:

• - formed with the help of prefixes opposite in meaning: import - export, arm - disarm, ascend - enter, win - lose, tie - untie;
• - formed from another word with the help of a prefix that gives the word the opposite meaning: moral — immoral, Russian — anti-Russian, spot — cashless, humanization — dehumanization, entrepreneurship — pseudo-entrepreneurship(creation of a commercial organization without the intention to carry out entrepreneurial activity), visiting — travel restrictions;
• - formed from a common generating word by means of suffixes opposite in meaning. Home: house — domino; hand: pen — hands.

Recently, the number of antonyms among compound terms, in particular legal ones, has noticeably increased. Some of them have a middle link located between the extreme points of manifestation of antonymy:

• 1) along with the concept joint-stock company- a commercial organization, the authorized capital of which is divided into a certain number of shares, there are opposing concepts - a joint-stock company whose members may alienate their shares without the consent of other shareholders, and - a joint-stock company, whose shares are distributed only among its founders;
• 2) apart from the concept competition, contrasting concepts are used closed competition— a competition in which only Russian subjects of foreign trade activity can take part, and open competition— a competition in which any subjects of foreign trade activity can take part;
• 3) in addition to the concept organization introduced antonymous concepts commercial organization- an organization that pursues profit as the main goal of its activities, and non-profit organization- an organization that does not have as its main goal the extraction of profit and does not distribute the profit received among the participants;
• 4) term resort served as the basis for the creation of antonymous compound terms local resort and federal resort, as well as, as it were, a middle term regional resort.

However, most compound terms - antonyms do not have a middle link. For example:

• 1) rental agreement for a vehicle without a crew- an agreement for the provision by the lessor to the lessee of a vehicle for payment for temporary possession and use without the provision of services for its management and its technical operation and vehicle rental agreement with crew- an agreement for the provision by the lessor to the lessee of a vehicle for payment for temporary possession and use with the provision of services on its own for managing it and for its technical operation;
• 2) association of commercial organizations and association of non-profit organizations;
• 3) separate citizen(in particular, a foreign citizen and a stateless person) as a subject of civil law and entity- an organization that owns, manages or manages separate property and is liable for all obligations with this property, can acquire and exercise property and personal non-property rights on its own behalf, bear obligations, be a plaintiff and defendant in court.

The presence of such antonymic pairs as vehicle rental agreement without a crew — Withcrew , does not imply that other compound terms that include a prepositional substantive phrase necessarily have antonymous compound terms with a prepositional substantive phrase that is opposite in meaning.

For example, it has recently become very relevant in our country limited liability company- an economic company founded by one or more persons, the authorized capital of which is divided into shares of the sizes determined by the constituent documents; the participants of the company are not liable for its obligations and bear the risk of losses associated with the activities of the company, within the value of their contributions. But this does not mean that there is a term limited liability company, whose participants are fully responsible for its obligations and for possible losses. For such societies, other names are used: public corporation, closed joint stock company and etc.

There are known cases of competition between some antonymic pairs in the 1990s.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, on the borders of the Russian Federation, a kind of new abroad (new independent states - Ukraine, Georgia, Kazakhstan, etc.) arose in comparison with the already existing, old, always taking place. This process is reflected in official documents. Thus, the "Programme of measures to support compatriots abroad" (1996) provided for the involvement of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in solving the problems of compatriots abroad, including those Russian republics whose titular population makes up a significant part in the countries new and traditional for Russia abroad. This and only this antonymous pair in this case is consistently used throughout the document as official terms.

However, this antonymous pair new — traditional abroad did not gain a foothold in use, did not enter into the speech practice of the population either at the official or at the household level. Thus, in the commentary to the "Programme of Measures" ( S. Karkhanin. Ros. newspaper) for the generalized naming of countries included in the Commonwealth of Independent States, not used new, a Near Abroad: Perhaps the main problem for Russians in near abroad Today, education has become in their native language.

At the same time, the antonymic pair near-far abroad has been widely used, and at all levels: There are two main directions in Russia's foreign policy. The first is relations with the former Soviet republics, the so-called neighboring countries , the second is relations with the so-called far abroad.

There are linguistic, speech, contextual antonyms. Language antonyms belong to the language system, i.e. are well-known and commonly used: repressed — rehabilitated, moral — immoral, Near Abroad — far abroad etc.

Speech antonyms are those that occur in the speech of certain persons, but have not become public domain. For example: Brezhnev's suit, designed by Igmand, was not only unfashionable, he was, you can say, antifashion (AiF. 1999). Adjective antifashion, probably invented by the author; in any case, it is not recorded in any dictionary.

Contextual ones are close to speech antonyms - these are words that are not antonyms, if taken separately, but acquire signs of antonymy in a certain verbal series. For example:

1) The conversation ultimately concerned new things.

Did you buy the cloth from Gasner?

- It? What do you! From Bucharest... Look closely, what color!

- The color is very pleasant, but ... they say it is no longer in fashion. Here is black! Well, that one never goes out of style... Verified!

If the material was black, then in the mouth of an envious person from "verified" he turned into "bored" and "beaten" (Y. Kolesnikov); 2) And power at and mafia sometimes / close in nature: / They stubbornly among themselves / Leading the fight against crime V. Orlov); 3) It didn’t even stop that the neighborhood of two Vladimirs - Baptist and atheist- this is nonsense in every sense: political, moral and historical ( B. Oleinik).

Of course, words taken out of context verified — bored, beaten; power — mafia; Baptist — atheist are not antonyms.

A variety of antonyms includes the so-called conversives - pairs of words that express the reverse relationship in the original and derived statements. For example: school students sent parcel fighters special forces. — Fighters special forces got mail from school students. The subject of the first utterance ( students) and its destination object ( fighters) change roles in the second utterance, where the subject becomes fighters, and the object - the source of something - students. Such relations between subject and object, expressed lexically - in converse words, resemble similar relations in active and passive turns of speech. Wed: The graduate student summarizes the article. — Article outlined graduate student. Here the conversion is expressed by the forms of the verb - transitive ( outlines) and return ( outlined).

There is another group of antonyms - euphemisms - words that express the opposite meaning in a softened way. Usually euphemisms are formed by adding the prefix not- to the original word beautiful — ugly, but ugly; thrifty — wasteful, but careless; noble(human) - short, but base.

Antonyms usually act as a pair, although one of them can sometimes be opposed by two or more lexical units at the same time. For example: hot Cold (ice); rude — polite (courteous, delicate); dirty, owl. in. pollute — clean, owl. in. clean out (clean up). The words in brackets are antonyms.

If a word has many meanings, then each of its meanings can be included in a special antonymic pair. For example:

• 1) noun protection in the meaning of "protection from hostile actions" opposes attack, and the noun protection in the meaning of "protecting party in a lawsuit" - accusation;
• 2) the adjective is light, "performed without much difficulty", opposite difficult, and the adjective light, "insignificant in weight", — heavy.

Antonymy as an artistic technique (antithesis) is often used in literary works, helping to create a contrast of images, to emphasize the opposition of signs and actions, which makes statements more emotional and memorable. Here is one phrase from E. Yevtushenko, where a whole chain of antonymic pairs is strung: Apart from funny and sad , besides vile and good , besides life and of death there is still world infinity on earth.

Of the antonymic dictionaries, the most famous are two:

Lvov M. R. Dictionary of antonyms of the Russian language. About 2000 antonymic pairs. M., 1978.

Lvov M. R. School dictionary of antonyms of the Russian language. M., 1980.

Antonyms are words of the same part of speech with the opposite lexical meaning: question - answer, stupid - smart, loud - quiet, remember - forget. They are usually opposed on some basis: day and night - by time, light and heavy- by weight up and at the bottom- by position in space, bitter and sweet- to taste, etc.

Antonymy relationships can be between words (North South), between words and phraseological units (win - lose), between phraseological units (win - lose).

Different-root and single-root antonyms also differ: poor - rich, fly in - fly away.

A polysemantic word in its different meanings can have different antonyms. So, the antonym of the word light in the meaning of "insignificant in weight" is an adjective heavy, and in the meaning of "easy to learn" - difficult.

main function antonyms(and linguistic and contextual speech) is an expression of opposition, which is inherent in the semantics of such oppositions and does not depend on the context.

The opposite function can be used for different stylistic purposes:

To indicate the limit of manifestation of quality, properties, relationships, actions:

To update the statement or enhance the image, impression, and so on;

· to express an assessment (sometimes in comparative terms) of opposite properties of objects, actions, and others;

· for the statement of two opposite properties, qualities, actions;

· to approve one of the opposing signs, actions or phenomena of reality at the expense of denying the other;

· to recognize a certain intermediate, intermediate quality, property, and so on, possible or already approved between two words opposite in meaning.

In addition to synonyms and homonyms, polysemy is associated antonymy. Lexical antonyms(from the Greek Anti - against, Onyma - name) - these are words that are opposite in meaning. Antonymy is built on the opposition of correlative concepts: friend - enemy, bitter - sweet, easy - difficult, etc.

The antonymic series consists of words belonging to the same part of speech. Both significant parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.) and service parts (for example, prepositions: in - from, over - under, with - without, etc.) enter into antonymic relations. However, only those words in the lexical meaning of which there are the following shades of quality:
1) size, color, taste: large - small, white - black, heavy - light;
2) emotional state: love - hate;
3) emotional action: upset - rejoice.

Also, words that denote temporal and spatial relationships enter into antonymic connections:
yesterday - today, ahead - behind, there - here, east - west, north - south, etc.

Words with a concrete-objective meaning, used in a direct, and not in a figurative sense (camel, house, standing, etc.), are unable to have antonyms. They do not have antonyms proper names, numerals, most pronouns. By structure, antonyms are divided into two main groups:
1) One-root antonyms:
Luck is failure; Active - inactive; Come and go, etc.
2) Different root antonyms:
Poverty is a luxury; Active - passive; Blame - defend; Today - tomorrow, etc.

Antonymy is closely related to polysemy and synonymy. A polysemantic word can be included in different antonymic series:
In modern Russian, there are contextual antonyms, which act in antonymous relations only in a certain context. Antonyms of this type can have different grammatical forms, belonging to the same part of speech, or refer to different parts of speech, while differing stylistically. These stylistic differences are not reflected in dictionaries, for example:
... I am stupid, and you are smart, alive, and I am dumbfounded (M. Tsvetaeva)
Antonymy underlies oxymoron- combinations of words (most often an adjective and a noun) that are opposite in meaning, for example:
The fresh air smelled of the bitter sweetness of an autumn morning (I. Bunin) And I didn’t go crazy, but you turn out to be a smart fool (M. Sholokhov)

The functional use and expressive possibilities of antonyms are varied. Antonyms are most often used in the text in pairs, expressing a wide variety of shades of meaning and meaning - comparison, opposition, etc. For example:
Words can cry and laugh
Order, pray and conjure (B. Pasternak)

For the same purposes, antonyms are used in many proverbs and sayings of Russian folklore: Where is the smart sorrow, the fool is fun; A good rope is long, and speech is short; Do not run away from the good, but do not do the bad. Antithesis (that is, contextual opposition) is created not only with the help of synonyms, but also with the help of antonyms. For example, antonyms are used in the titles of literary works, indicating that the structural basis of the work is opposition - antithesis in the broad sense of the word, woven into the fabric of the narrative:
The epic novel "War and Peace" by L. N. Tolstoy;
The novel "The Living and the Dead" by K. M. Simonov;
The story "Days and Nights" by K. M. Simonov.