Antonyms and their examples. Examples in language and literature

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.

Cold and hot, shallow and deep, useful and harmful, independent and dependent, summer and winter, love and hate, joy and sorrow, take off and land, begin and end, good and bad, serious and frivolous. What do you think these words are? Antonyms! Examples of such words, as well as the actual concept of "antonym" we will present in this article.

Antonyms: concept

So, in the vocabulary of the modern Russian language there is such a thing as "antonyms". Examples of words with opposite meanings can be given ad infinitum. Sweet - bitter; cute - nasty; rise - fall; vanity - peace. These words are called antonyms.

The examples of words given above prove that only words that are the same part of speech can be called antonyms. That is, the words "love" and "hate", "always" and "frequent", "lighten" and "dark" are not antonyms. Can the adjectives "low" and "happy" be called antonyms? No, because words can only be compared on one basis. And in our case there are two. In addition, if antonyms denote some quality, then they must possess or not possess this quality in equal measure. So, "frost" and "heat" are not full-fledged antonyms, since frost is a high degree of cold, and heat is an average degree of temperature above zero.

Noun antonyms: word examples

In Russian, antonyms-nouns are quite common. It should be noted that nouns that have antonyms have a connotation of quality in their meaning.

For example: adherence to principles - lack of principles; minus plus; income - losses; output - input; ascent - descent; day Night; light - darkness; the word is silence; dream - reality; dirt - purity; captivity - freedom; progress - regression; success - failure; youth - old age; purchase - sale; start - end.

Adjectives with the opposite meaning

Among adjectives, you can find the largest number of pairs of antonyms.

Examples of words: empty - full; day - night; fervent - dull, happy - unhappy; light heavy; simple - complex; cheap - expensive; paid - free; confident - unsure; main - secondary; significant - trifling; real - virtual, native - someone else's; obstinate - complaisant; excited - calm; smooth - rough; artificial - natural; beloved - unloved; raw - dry.

Adverbs

Adverbs in this regard are not inferior to adjectives. There are also many antonyms among them.

Examples of words: easy - difficult; cheap - expensive; immediately - gradually; stupid - smart; corny - original; long - not long; enough - not enough; intelligible - indistinct; right - wrong, cold - hot.

Verbs-antonyms: examples of words in Russian

There are also verbs in Russian that are opposite in meaning.

For example: scold - praise; take - give; work - idle; to get sick - to recover; get better - lose weight; to refuse - to agree; accustom - wean; notice - ignore; lose - find; increase - decrease; earn - spend; bury - dig out; leave - return; say goodbye - say hello; turn around - turn away; iron - knead; take off - put on; dress - undress.

Thus, almost all parts of speech are rich in antonyms. They can be found even among prepositions: in - from, on - under, etc.

Exercises

To reinforce the learned material, it is useful to perform several exercises.

1. Read a poem by a famous children's poet and find all the antonyms in it:

Here's a gibberish for the guys:

When they are silent, they do not speak.

When they sit in one place

They don't travel.

What is far, not close at all.

High, not very low.

And how to arrive without leaving.

And eat a nut, since there are no nuts.

Nobody wants to lie standing.

Pour from empty to empty.

Do not write on white chalk

And do not call idleness a thing.

2. Insert antonyms instead of dots:

... feeds a person, but ... spoils.
... ... does not understand.
... body, yes ... deed.
... for food, yes... for work.
... saddled, but ... galloped.
Day to day strife: today ... and tomorrow ...
Prepare the cart ... and the sleigh ...
One brother... and the other...
Today the sea ... but yesterday it was quite ...
Alyosha has an easy character: he remembers... and forgets...
You're always like this... why is today...?
The root of the doctrine ... but the fruits ...

Exercise #1: silent - they speak; far close; high - low; arrive - leave; lie - stand; idleness is business.

Exercise #2:

Labor, laziness.
Satiated, hungry.
Small, big.
Hello, hil.
Early late.
Warm, cold.
Winter, summer.
Silent, talker.
Stormy, quiet.
Good evil.
Cheerful, joyful.
Bitter, sweet.

Antonyms are words that belong to the same part of speech, differ in pronunciation and spelling, and have opposite meanings. For example, cold - hot, loud - quiet, friend - enemy, rejoice - be sad.

Words can enter into antonymic relations, the meanings of which carry opposite properties, while the comparison should be based on some common feature (size, weight, temperature, speed, etc.). Only words belonging to the same part are contrasted.

Antonymic pairs do not form the following word categories:

- nouns that have specific objective meanings(tree, cave, pencil);
- proper nouns(Petya, Vasya);
- most pronouns and numerals;
- nouns indicating gender(granddaughter and grandson, aunt and uncle);
- words from different stylistic categories(be silent and broadcast);
- words with suffixes with the meaning of increase or decrease(ship and boat, man and human).

According to the structure, antonyms are distinguished:

- single root-formed with the help of prefixes with the opposite meaning (friend - foe, enter - exit);

- heteroroot(high - low, raise - lower, hot - cold).

Antonymy and polysemy of words

Polysemantic words can form antonymous pairs with different words, depending on the meaning to which they are used in a given context:

soft sofa - hard sofa,

soft tone - sharp tone,

soft clay - hard clay.

A special phenomenon in the language is antonymic relations in the structure of the meanings of a polysemantic word ( enantiosemy):

view report(meaning familiarize) - view typo(skip),

borrow a book from a friend(borrow) lend money to a colleague(to lend).

General language and contextual antonyms

– general language(linguistic) antonyms exist in the language system and are reproduced regardless of the context ( darkness - light, big - small);

– contextual(speech, occasional) antonyms appear only in a certain context ( "Ice and fire"- the title of the story by R. Bradbury).

The role of antonyms in speech

Antonyms make our speech brighter and more expressive. They often appear in the titles of works of art. ("War and Peace", "Fathers and Sons"), in proverbs (“In people, honey, but at home, hell”), the use of antonyms underlies a number of stylistic devices.

One of these approaches is antithesis- rhetorical opposition

“They got along. Wave and stone

Poetry and prose, ice and fire.(A.S. Pushkin);

– « I am the lonely son of the earth

You are a radiant vision."(A. A. Blok).

Another take: oxymoron- a combination of concepts that are incompatible from the point of view of logic:

- "Dead Souls"(N. V. Gogol);

- "Ordinary Miracle" ( E. Schwartz);

“Look, she is happy to be sad,

So beautifully naked." (A.A. Akhmatova).

Dictionaries

Special dictionaries of antonyms will help you choose an antonymous pair. We can recommend dictionaries edited by L.A. Vvedenskaya (more than 1,000 pairs of antonyms) and N.P. Kolesnikov (more than 1,300 pairs). In addition, there are highly specialized dictionaries, for example, a dictionary of antonyms-phraseological units or antonyms-dialectisms.

In meaning, but words belonging to the same part of speech. They have different spellings and sounds. It is very easy to determine the meaning of one antonym through another, it is enough to give it the form of negation. For example, a direct antonym for the word to speak - not to be silent, sad - not cheerful and so on. In this article, we will consider the concept of "antonyms" in more detail and find out their types.

General information

Due to the richness of the Russian language, there are many nuances and subtleties in any part of speech. It is not for nothing that numerous textbooks on linguistics are studied in schools and some higher educational institutions.

It is noteworthy that, due to the ambiguity, the antonyms of the same word in different contexts differ. For example: old boar - young boar, old car - new car, old cheese - fresh cheese and so on.
Not every lexical unit has antonyms. They are not, for example, in words sew, institute, book and so on.
The main feature is the opposition of words that can mean:

attributes of the subject ( smart - stupid, evil - kind);
social and natural phenomena ( talent - mediocrity, heat - cold);
states and actions ( disassemble - collect, forget - remember).

Types of antonyms

They are different in structure.

One-root antonyms are words that are opposite in meaning, but have the same root. For example: love - dislike, progress - regression. They are formed by adding prefixes (non-, without / with-, re-, de-, and so on).
Different-root antonyms are words that are polar in meaning and have different roots. For example: big - small, black - white.

In turn, the first type is also divided into: antonyms-euphemisms (loyally express the opposite, difference, for example: significant - insignificant) and enantiosemes (express opposition with the same word, for example: view(in the sense of seeing) and view(meaning skip).

Another group is also distinguished: contextual antonyms are words that differ in meaning only in a particular case. For example, in the author's performance: she had not eyes- a eyes.

The meaning of antonyms are as follows.

Opposite: they denote the polarity of actions, phenomena or signs. As a rule, between similar antonyms you can put a word with a neutral meaning: joy- apathy - sad, positive- indifference - negative.
Vector: they denote multidirectional actions: put on - take off, open - close.
Contradictory: indicate the polarity of objects, phenomena and signs, each of which excludes the other. It is impossible to put a neutral word between them: right left.

Functions of antonyms

In a sentence, antonyms play a stylistic role and are used to make speech more expressive. Often they are used as an antithesis (opposition, contrast). Example: "Who was nobody, he will become everything." Sometimes antonyms form an oxymoron (connection of the incompatible). Example: "Hot snow", "Living corpse".

Antonyms are widely used not only in the titles of works, but also in proverbs and sayings.

(from Greek anti - against, ónyma - name) - these are words with the opposite meaning when used in pairs. Those words enter into antonymic relations, which reveal from opposite sides correlative concepts associated with one circle of objects, phenomena. Words form antonymic pairs based on their lexical meaning. One and the same word, if it is ambiguous, can have several antonyms.

occur within all parts of speech, however, the words of an antonymic pair must belong to the same part of speech.

Do not enter into antonymic relations:

- nouns with a specific meaning (house, book, school), proper names;

- numerals, most pronouns;

- words denoting gender (man and woman, son and daughter);

- words with different stylistic coloring;

- words with magnifying or diminutive accents (hand - hands, house - house).

By their structure, antonyms are not homogeneous. Among them there are:

- one-root antonyms: happiness - misfortune, open - close;

- heterogeneous antonyms: black - white, good - bad.

The phenomenon of antonymy is closely related to the polysemy of the word. Each of the meanings of the word can have its own antonyms. Yes, the word fresh in different meanings will have different antonymic pairs: fresh wind - sultry wind, fresh bread - stale bread, fresh shirt - dirty shirt.

Antonymic relations can also arise between different meanings of the same word. For example, to look through means “to get acquainted with something, to check, quickly examining, looking through, reading” and “to skip, not notice, miss”. The combination of opposite meanings in one word is called enantiosemy.

Depending on the distinctive features that words with the opposite meaning have, two types of antonyms can be distinguished general language(or simply linguistic) and contextual speech(author's or individual).

Common language antonyms are regularly reproduced in speech and fixed in the vocabulary (day - night, poor - rich).

Contextual speech antonyms- these are words that enter into antonymous relations only in a certain context: Sing better with a goldfinch than with a nightingale.

The use of antonyms makes speech more vivid and expressive. Antonyms are used in colloquial and artistic speech, in many proverbs and sayings, in the titles of many literary works.

One of the stylistic figures is built on a sharp opposition of antonyms - antithesis(opposition) - a characteristic by comparing two opposite phenomena or signs: Long live the sun, let the darkness hide! (A.S. Pushkin). Writers often build titles of works using this technique: “War and Peace” (L.N. Tolstoy), “Fathers and Sons” (I.S. Turgenev), “Thick and Thin” (A.P. Chekhov), etc. .

Another stylistic device, which is based on the comparison of antonymic meanings, is oxymoron or oxymoron(gr. oxymoron - lit. witty-stupid) - a figure of speech in which logically incompatible concepts are connected: a living corpse, dead souls, ringing silence.

Dictionaries of antonyms will help you choose an antonym for a word.Dictionaries of antonyms- linguistic reference dictionaries that describe antonyms. For example, in dictionary L.A. Vvedenskaya the interpretation of more than 1000 antonymic pairs is given (their synonymous correspondences are also taken into account), the contexts of use are given. BUT in the dictionary of N.P. Kolesnikova antonyms and paronyms are fixed. The book contains approximately 3,000 paronyms and more than 1,300 pairs of antonyms. There are no illustrations of the use of antonyms in the dictionary.

In addition to antonym dictionaries of a general type, there are also private dictionaries that fix polar relationships in some narrow areas of the vocabulary. This includes, for example, dictionaries of antonyms-phraseological units, dictionaries of antonyms-dialectisms, etc.

Let's take a look at the most common examples of antonyms: good evil; good bad; friend - enemy; day Night; heat - cold; peace - war, quarrel; true False; success - failure; benefit - harm; rich - poor; difficult - easy; generous - stingy; thick - thin; hard - soft; brave - cowardly; White black; fast - slow; high Low; bitter - sweet; hot Cold; wet - dry; full - hungry; new - old; big small; laugh - cry; speak - be silent; love - hate.

Do you have any questions? Can't find an antonym for a word?
To get help from a tutor -.
The first lesson is free!

blog.site, with full or partial copying of the material, a link to the source is required.