What are antonyms in Russian? What are they for? The meaning of the word "antonyms".

Introduction

Antonyms - words with opposite meanings - occupy a special place in the Russian language. Antonymy reflects an essential aspect of systemic connections in Russian vocabulary. Modern science of language considers synonymy and antonymy as extreme, limiting cases of interchangeability and opposition of words in content. Moreover, if synonymous relations are characterized by semantic similarity, then antonymic relations are characterized by semantic difference.

The existence of antonyms in language is determined by the nature of our perception of reality in all its contradictory complexity, in the unity and struggle of opposites. Therefore, contrasting words, as well as the concepts they denote, are not only opposed, but also closely related to each other.

The subject of consideration in the abstract will be the use of antonyms in the Russian language.

Abstract objectives:

Review the definition of antonyms;

Analyze the connection between antonyms and polysemy;

Consider and summarize the functions of using antonyms in the Russian language.

When writing the abstract, educational and methodological materials on the Russian language and speech culture were used. The abstract consists of an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion and a list of references.

Antonyms in Russian

Antonyms (gr. anti - against + onyma - name) are words that differ in sound and have directly opposite meanings: truth - lie, good - evil, speak - remain silent. Antonyms usually refer to one part of speech and form pairs.

Antonymy in language is represented narrower than synonymy: only words that are correlative on some basis - qualitative, quantitative, temporal, spatial and belonging to the same category of objective reality as mutually exclusive concepts enter into antonymic relations: beautiful - ugly, many - little, morning - evening, moving away - bringing closer. Novikov L. A. Antonymy in the Russian language. M., 1993., p. 35

Words with other meanings usually do not have antonyms; Wed: house, thinking, writing, twenty, Kyiv, Caucasus. Most antonyms characterize qualities (good - bad, smart - stupid, native - alien, thick - rare, etc.); There are also many that indicate spatial and temporal relationships (large - small, spacious - cramped, high - low, wide - narrow; early - late, day - night); there are fewer antonymous pairs with a quantitative meaning (many - few; unique - numerous). There are opposite names for actions and states (cry - laugh, rejoice - grieve), but there are few of them.

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 to each other. The word kind, for example, evokes the word evil in our minds, distant reminds us of what is close, and speed up reminds us of 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 specified feature to varying degrees, i.e., its decrease or increase. For example: rich - wealthy - poor - poor - beggar; harmful - harmless - useless - useful. This opposition suggests a possible degree of strengthening of a characteristic, quality, action, or gradation (Latin gradatio - gradual increase). Semantic gradation (graduality), therefore, is characteristic only of those antonyms whose semantic structure contains an indication of the degree of quality: young - old, big - small, small - large, etc. Other antonymic pairs lack the sign of graduality: up - down, day - night, life - death, man - woman.

Antonyms that have the attribute of gradualism can be interchanged in speech to give the statement a polite form; so, it is better to say thin than skinny; older than old. Words used to eliminate the harshness or rudeness of a phrase are called euphemisms (gr. eu - good + phemi - I say). On this basis, they sometimes talk about antonyms-euphemisms, which express the meaning of the opposite in a softened form. Fomina M.I. Modern Russian language: Lexicology. - M.: Nauka, 2000., P. 140

In the lexical system of the language, one can also distinguish antonyms-conversives (Latin conversio - change). These are words that express the relation of opposition in the original (direct) and modified (inverse) statement: Alexander gave the book to Dmitry. - Dmitry took the book from Alexander; The professor takes the test from the intern. - The intern takes the test to the professor.

There is also intra-word antonymy in the language - antonymy of the meanings of polysemantic words, or enantiosemy (Greek enantios - opposite + sema - sign). This phenomenon is observed in polysemous words that develop mutually exclusive meanings. For example, the verb to depart can mean “to return to normal, to feel better,” but it can also mean “to die, to say goodbye to life.” Enantiosemy becomes the reason for the ambiguity of such statements, for example: The editor looked through these lines; I listened to the divertissement; The speaker made a slip of the tongue.

According to their structure, antonyms are divided into multi-rooted (day - night) and single-rooted (come - go, revolution - counter-revolution). The first form a group of actual lexical antonyms, the second - lexico-grammatical. In single-root antonyms, the opposite meaning is caused by various prefixes, which are also capable of entering into antonymic relationships; Wed: put in - put out, put on - set aside, close - open. Consequently, the opposition of such words is due to word formation. However, it should be borne in mind that adding the prefixes not-, bez- to qualitative adjectives and adverbs 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 “muted” (mature - this does not mean “old” yet). Therefore, not all prefix formations can be classified as antonyms in the strict sense of the term, but only those that are extreme members of the antonymic paradigm: successful - unsuccessful, strong - powerless.

Antonyms, as already mentioned, usually form a pairwise correlation in a 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 “unclosed”, polynomial series, cf.: concrete - abstract, abstract; cheerful - sad, sorrowful, 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 antonymous units are located horizontally.

For example:

Such a correlation of synonymous and antonymic relations reflects the systemic connections of words in the lexicon. Systematicity is also indicated by the relationship between polysemy and antonymy of lexical units.

We were lucky to be born in a country where Russian is considered the main language. It is rich in various sounds, words and lexical phrases. The same phenomenon can be described in completely different ways, in dozens of different ways, and each description will be unique, not similar to the previous one. This is why there are synonyms, antonyms and homonyms. They make speech more beautiful, allow us to correctly place accents, and also develop, improving our vocabulary.

What are synonyms and antonyms in the Russian language, how do they differ and what are they? – we will find out in today’s article. Looking ahead, I will inform you that we will also consider such an interesting thing as homonyms. Let's go?

What are synonyms

Agree, it would be quite boring to communicate if each object could be named only in one single way. You look at the sun, and you can’t say: light, bright, radiant. You only need to choose one thing. It would be very boring, and the speech would be meager and not rich.

Synonyms are words that have the same meaning but are spelled differently. As you may have guessed, there are a lot of synonyms. For example, a swimming pool and a pond. The meaning is the same, but it is written differently. Another example: house, building, hut, structure, construction, real estate, dwelling. Continue on your own?

In various cases, words may be synonyms, but they may not be, depending on the context, or they may not be suitable in meaning. For example, cherry blossom can also be called red, but cherry pie is not necessarily red.

Assignment: come up with synonyms for the words: dog, animal, liquid.

What are antonyms

In contrast to synonyms, there are antonyms - words that have opposite meanings. They write differently and have the exact opposite meaning. For example, black - white, good - evil, come - go, start - finish.

This does not mean at all that we use antonyms every day and consciously remember them, rummaging through our memory, but understanding them and being able to quickly select several oppositions in our minds is a sign of education and erudition.

Assignment: choose antonyms for the words: morning, winter, end.

What are homonyms

The last term for today is homonyms - these are words that are spelled the same, but have completely different meanings. It just so happens that the Russian alphabet does not have a thousand letters, otherwise it would be impossible to remember them all. Therefore, the spellings of words are repeated, which, depending on the context, mean different meanings.

For example, the key can be for a door lock, a treble key in sheet music, in the form of a pond, or a wrench. All of these will be completely different objects, but they will be written the same way - the word key. Second example: a scythe used to cut grass, as well as a long braid of hair.

Task: what meanings of the following words can you remember: outfit, caress, flying.

Antonyms(Greek αντί- - against + όνομα - name) - these are words of the same part of speech, different in sound and spelling, having directly opposite lexical meanings, for example: “truth” - “lie”, “good” - “evil”, “ speak" - "be silent".

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 lexical-semantic variants of a polysemantic word. Most words of the language do not contain a feature capable of opposition, therefore, antonymic relationships are impossible for them, however, in a figurative meaning they can acquire an antonym. Thus, in contextual antonymy, antonymic relationships between 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 words whose meanings 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 contrasted. Consequently, words belonging to different parts of speech or lexical levels cannot become linguistic antonyms.

Proper names, pronouns, and numerals do not have antonyms.

1Typology of antonymic relations

2Antonyms in poetry

3Sm. Also

4Notes

5Literature

Typology of antonymic relations

Antonyms according to the type of concepts expressed:

contradictory correlates - such opposites that mutually complement each other to the whole, without transitional links; they are in a relation of private opposition. Examples: bad - good, lie - truth, living - dead.

contrasting correlates - antonyms expressing polar opposites within one entity in the presence of transitional links - internal gradation; they are in a relation of gradual opposition. Examples: black (- gray -) white, old (- elderly - middle-aged -) young, large (- average -) small.

vector correlates are antonyms expressing different directions of actions, signs, social phenomena, etc. Examples: enter - exit, descend - rise, light - extinguish, revolution - counter-revolution.

Conversions 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 a word. Examples: lend someone money - borrow money from someone, surround someone with tea - treat and not treat.

pragmatic - words that are regularly contrasted in the practice of their use, in contexts (pragmatics - “action”). Examples: soul - body, mind - heart, earth - sky.

According to the structure, antonyms are:

different roots (forward - back);

single-root - formed using prefixes that are opposite in meaning: enter - exit, or using 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 arise in a certain context (to check the presence of this type, you need to reduce them to a language pair) - (golden - half copper, that is, expensive - cheap). They are often found in proverbs.

In terms of action, antonyms are:

proportionate - action and reaction (get up - go to bed, get rich - get poor);

disproportionate - action and lack of action (in a broad sense) (light - extinguish, think - change your mind).

Antonyms- these are words of the same part of speech with opposite lexical meanings.

Word antonym came from the Greek. anti- against + onyma- Name.

Antonyms allow you to see objects, phenomena, signs by contrast.

Example:

hot ↔ cold, loud ↔ quiet, walk ↔ stand, far ↔ close

Not all words have antonyms. Words that denote specific objects (table, desk, goat) usually do not have antonyms.

Different meanings of a polysemantic word can have different antonyms.

Example:

soft (fresh) bread ↔ stale bread; soft (smooth) movements ↔ sudden movements; mild (warm) climate ↔ harsh climate.

Most antonyms are words of different roots. But they also meet single-root antonyms.

The opposite meaning in such cases is created using negative prefixes Not-,without-,anti-,counter- etc.

Example:

experienced - inexperienced, familiar - unfamiliar, tasty - tasteless, military - anti-war, revolution - counter-revolution

Antonyms are widely used by writers and poets to enhance the expressiveness of speech.

Example:

You rich, I'm very poor; You prose writer, I poet; You blushI am like the color of poppies, I am like death, and skinny and pale. (A. Pushkin)

This technique (the use of antonyms in a literary text) is called antithesis.

Phoneme(Ancient Greek φώνημα - “sound”) - the minimum meaningful unit of language - (Linguistic unit of speech). The phoneme does not have an independent lexical or grammatical meaning, but serves to distinguish and identify significant units of language (morphemes and words):

when replacing one phoneme with another, you get a different word (<д>om -<т>ohm);

changing the order of phonemes will also result in a different word (<сон> - <нос>);

when you remove a phoneme, you will also get another word (i.e.<р>he is the tone).

The term “phoneme” in a close modern sense was introduced by the Polish-Russian linguists N.V. Krushevsky and I.A. Baudouin de Courtenay who worked in Kazan (after Krushevsky’s early death, Baudouin de Courtenay pointed out its priority).

The phoneme as an abstract unit of language corresponds to the sound of speech as a concrete unit in which the phoneme is materially realized. Strictly speaking, speech sounds are infinitely varied; a sufficiently accurate physical analysis can show that one person never pronounces the same sound in the same way (for example, stressed [á]). However, while all these pronunciation options allow you to correctly recognize and distinguish words, the sound [á] in all its variants will be a realization of the same phoneme<а>.

Phoneme is the object of study of phonology. This concept plays an important role in solving such practical problems as developing alphabets, spelling principles, etc.

The minimal unit of sign languages was previously called a chireme.

Hello, dear readers of the blog site. You often hear arguments about which language is more difficult, but you don’t have to be a philologist to understand that learning Russian is a real feat.

Especially considering the presence of a large number of words that are comparable in meaning, but often completely different in spelling (). Or, conversely, different in meaning, but identical in spelling (). But there are also words that sound the same, but differ in spelling ().

In this regard, we only have to find out what antonyms are, what role they play in the Russian language and whether we can do without them, in principle.

Looking ahead, I will say that without them, the lexical beauty of the Russian language would have suffered significant damage. To understand this, it is enough to turn to our classics, who often used this technique in their work.

What is an antonym?

In short, this is the opposite of synonyms (different words that mean approximately the same thing, such as “cheerful - joyful”, “traveler - traveler”). In the case of an antonym, the definition will sound like this:

these are the words that have opposite meanings(opposed to each other), but necessarily belonging to the same part of speech. For example, “day - night”, “bright - dark”, “walk - stand”, “cold - warm”.

The word itself is a derivative of the ancient Greek words ἀντί, meaning “against” and ὄνομα, meaning “name”:

It turns out that antonyms are most often two words (lexical oppositions), belonging to the same part of speech, which can be:

Numerals, pronouns and proper names, as well as words belonging to different parts of speech, do not have antonyms. There are many words in the Russian language that cannot be contrasted, but in this case it can be found figuratively.

Please note that the figurative meaning of the same word may differ in different contexts.

For example, we can say “old” and “young” about an animal of different ages (wolf, goose, ram), but we cannot describe a car, a machine tool, a sofa in the same way. They can also be old, but there is no such expression as a “young” car (sofa, machine). In this case, another antonym, “new,” would be better suited.

And there are quite a lot of such examples, so it’s impossible to explain in a nutshell what this is (as well as about synonyms, paronyms and homonyms). I’m not talking about foreigners - for them this is a direct path to the “yellow house”.

Types of antonyms, according to what criteria they are divided

Speaking about the types of autonomous entities, we can highlight:

Now let’s consolidate the learned material by watching a short video on the topic, without missing anything interesting:

Examples of various antonyms

The lexical set of the Russian language is so rich that it takes foreigners a lifetime to understand what synonyms, antonyms and homonyms are. In this regard, it is incomparably easier for native speakers.

There are the following types of antonymic words and expressions:

It is obvious that without these lexical embellishments our language would be boring and uninteresting. Without them, how could you describe a person who has the complete opposite of another personality or convey experiences and feelings.

Thus, several concepts can be contrasted at once, as in the example of “loving good and hating evil.”

Antonyms in Russian proverbs

We can talk a lot about how useful antonyms are, and how difficult it is without them, but it’s better to look at examples. In this regard, Russian proverbs and sayings illustrate the material well.

Everyone, for example, understands the meaning of the proverb, which says that “a sleigh must be prepared in the summer, and a cart in the winter.” Antonyms enhance the effect. Each of us knows that “the well-fed is no companion to the hungry,” “the morning is wiser than the evening,” and “the bins of a bad owner are sometimes thick and sometimes empty.”

Sometimes the opposite is indicated by entire phrases. For example, about a rich person you can say that “he has no money,” but a poor person has it “like a cat crying.” You can also “keep your eyes open”, or you can “count crows”, “live on your own hump” or “sit on someone else’s neck”.

The Russian language is truly rich, and you won’t envy those who have to learn it “from scratch,” because how can you explain to a foreigner what “seven spans in the forehead” is and how the expression “without a king in the head” is different.

And in conclusion, check how correctly you have mastered the material and understood what an antonym is:

Good luck to you! See you soon on the pages of the blog site

You can watch more videos by going to

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Species

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

Same root. These are lexical units whose morphemic composition has the same root. For example: to come - to leave, progress - regression, beautiful - ugly, add - set aside. Same-root antonymic pairs are formed using various prefixes, which can also be opposite to each other.
Multi-rooted. These are words that have different bases and roots in their morphemic composition (bad - good, morning - evening, native - foreign, etc.). You can find many more such examples of antonyms in the Russian language than examples of same-root antonymic pairs.

According to their semantic meaning, antonymic pairs are of the following types:

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

Based on their use in speech, antonyms are divided into the following types:

General language ones that 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 enshrined in dictionaries, but in context they will carry opposite meanings from each other.

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

An example of such antonymy is the well-known fable “Wolves and Sheep,” where the author contrasts two different concepts that are not enshrined 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 everyday life.

For example, in pictures it is easier for a child to understand the difference between antonymous 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 a language can be matched with others with the opposite meaning. So that he can perceive this, write separately on a piece of paper several words for which antonyms cannot be found. In this way, the child will be able to draw certain conclusions and remember exceptions.

Useful video

Let's sum it up

Antonymy in the Russian language 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.