CONTEXTUAL ANTONYMS

Xin Yue

College of Foreign Languages,Changchun University of Technology,Changchun,China

Email:445646675@qq.com

Wang Xiangfeng

College of Foreign Languages,Changchun University of Technology,Changchun,China

Email:604836491@qq.com

[Abstract] Antonymy is a common language phenomenon in lexical relations.With the in-depth study of context in pragmatics,researchers have gradually paid attention to the importance of discourse context.A new research object,contextual antonyms,has emerged.In this paper,the definition,characteristics and functions of contextual antonyms will be analyzed one by one.The main contribution of this paper is to arouse the attention of domestic scholars to contextual antonyms.

[Keywords] Antonyms;context;opposition;antonymy

INTRODUCTION

In the long history of human civilization,the relationship of "opposition" has always existed.Opposition and contradiction are embodied in early philosophy at home and abroad.With the development of philosophy and logic,the "opposition" has extended to various fields,for example,aesthetics,psychology and linguistics.And it has be⁃come the ideological basis for the development of various fields.In linguistics,antonyms are the most direct and dis⁃tinct embodiment of "opposition".Antonymy is a typical word meaning relationship (Murphy,2003).And it is also one of the semantic phenomena that have attracted much attention in language research.Zhou Zumo (1956) pointed out that antonyms are words with opposite meanings.Since then,most of the research content of domestic academic circles has focused on the definition,classification,and corpus analysis of antonyms;however,these studies are based on the static meaning of the word.Most of them are divorced from the context.At present,foreign scholars have been concerned about the influence of context on antonyms and have launched a series of studies.While the fact is that it has not been paid attention to by the academic circles in China.This paper will take contextual ant⁃onyms as the research object,and make a brief analysis of the definition,characteristics and functions.

CONTEXTUAL ANTONYMS

Regarding contextual antonyms,some linguists have proposed similar concepts.Murphy(2003)thinks that noncanonical antonyms refer to antonyms that do not automatically follow one another in free word association.They are less common or more context dependent.Jeffries(2010)calls them constructed opposites,created opposites or uncon⁃ventional opposites.They are pairs of words that oppositional relationship arises specifically from their textual sur⁃roundings.

Since context plays a significant role in the construction of antonym,contextual antonyms will be named in this paper.Due to the special context,the words that do not have opposite relations in the basic lexical meaning become a set of contextual antonyms.Contextual antonyms,one of the research objects of lexical pragmatics,belong to the category of pragmatics.Their production depends on the linguistic environment in which the vocabulary is located,rather than the basic meaning.

(1)It's a place that makes useful men out ofboys.Don't you want to be useful like yourbrothers?

In(1),based on the basic meaning,"boys"refers to young and underage men.And"brothers"refers to male sib⁃lings who have the same parents.Literally,there is no doubt that "boys" and "brothers" are not antonyms;however,in the context of(1),a new situation has emerged.The place can help useless underage boys to grow into useful men like their brothers.The lexical meanings of"boys"and"brothers"are newly encoded here."Boys"means useless im⁃mature men,and"brothers"means useful mature men.The new coding meaning creates an antagonistic relationship between two words.Accordingly,in this context,"boys" and "brothers" are contextual antonyms.In fact,contextual antonyms are a very common language phenomenon.It is just that most people lack sensitivity to them.

CHARACTERISTICS OF CONTEXTUAL ANTONYMS

Contextuality

From the above discussion on the definition of contextual antonyms,it can be found that discourse context plays a decisive role in the construction of contextual antonyms.Influenced and restrained by the context,the specific meaning of words can be explicit only in the given context.The words gradually have contextual.As far as contextual antonyms are concerned,the same pair of words may not have any lexical relationship in the context of one text,or belong to non-contextual antonyms;nevertheless,they can form contextual antonyms in the context of another text.

(2) For most people,sunken treasure ships exist only in adventurestoriesandtalesof pirates,Spaniards and swashbuckling rogues.

(3) Among other things,Pound meant that the stuff of literature originates not instoriesabout the World Bank or an armistice agreement but in those simple,repeatabletalesthat reflect the pain,confusion,or exaltations that are constant in human experience,and touch us at the deepest levels.

In the above example,"stories"and"tales"are connected by the coordinating conjunction"and".The sentence basically means that treasure ships exist in stories and tales.Both"stories"and"tales"are places where the treasure ship exists.Here,"stories" and "tales" can be regarded as synonyms rather than contextual antonyms;however,in(3),there is a pragmatic narrowing of"stories"and"tales"."Stories"are only about the World Bank or the armistice agreement."Tales"are only about those simple and repeated human experiences."Stories"and"tales"are connect⁃ed by"not...but..."indicating the transition relationship.In this case,"stories"and"tales"constitute a set of contex⁃tual antonyms.Through the two different contexts,the meaning of "stories" and "tales" has changed in (2) and (3).Although they are synonyms in(2),they constitute a set of contextual antonyms in(3).

Ad Hocness

The creation of contextual antonyms is based on the specific textual context.Most of them only temporarily exist in the current language environment.They are extremely ad hoc and unstable.Since the context of each text is dis⁃similar,the same word might have various contextual antonyms.Sometimes,in order to achieve a particular function,the author may create some temporary words to form contextual antonyms.The function of contextual antonyms will be described in the fourth chapter.

(4)Clearly,we need to understand the interaction between our two worlds:the naturalecosphere,the thin global skin of air,water,and soil and the plants and animals that live in it,and the man-madetechnosphere-powerful enough to deserve so grandiose a term.

(5) And in turn,the altered ecosphere threatens to flood our great cities,dry up our bountiful farms...Thehu⁃manattack on theecospherehas instigated an ecological counterattack.

In (4),the noun "ecosphere" is modified by the adjective "natural",which means "natural ecosystem".The noun"technosphere"is modified by the adjective"man-made",which means"man-made technology circle".There is an opposition between the adjectives"natural"and"man-made".As a result,the modified nouns"ecosphere"and"technosphere" have opposite properties.Then contextual antonyms appeared.In this context,"technosphere" is a coined word modeled on"ecosphere"."Ecosphere"is composed of the affix"eco-"and the root"sphere".Similarly,"technosphere"imitates this form to create a contextual antonym with the affix"tech-"and the root"sphere".

As for (5),the context roughly means the damaged ecosystem began to retaliate against mankind.Human en⁃croachment on the ecosystem has been counterattacked by the ecosystem.In this battle between man and nature,"human" is the offensive side and "ecosphere" is the defensive side.As the two sides of the battle,"human" and"ecosphere"have a certain opposition.Thus,"human"and"ecosphere"are a set of contextual antonyms.

Based on the above analysis,it can be seen that the word "ecosphere" has different temporary contextual ant⁃onyms in distinct contexts.In the context of(4),the contextual antonym of"ecosphere"is"technosphere".In the con⁃text of(5),the contextual antonym of"ecosphere"is"human"."Technosphere"is even a new word temporarily con⁃structed.These all reflect the ad hocness of contextual antonyms.

Dynamicness

Language is dynamic.The languages of various nations and countries will constantly change with the develop⁃ment of history and culture.As a phenomenon of language,contextual antonyms must also be dynamic.If a pair of contextual antonyms appear in other paragraphs of the article or even in different positions of the same paragraph,their relation may change.

(6) Once upon a time a coach,containing someEnglishmenand someFrenchmen,was driving over the Alps.The horses ran away,and as they were dashing across a bridge the coach caught on the stonework,tottered,and near⁃ly fell into the ravine below.TheFrenchmenwere frantic with terror:they screamed and gesticulated and flung them⁃selves about,as Frenchmen would.TheEnglishmensat quite calm.

In (6),"Englishmen" and "Frenchmen" appear in different positions in the same paragraph.The words "Eng⁃lishmen"and"Frenchmen"appearing for the first time in this paragraph are connected by the coordinating conjunc⁃tion "and",which means "the British and the French are sitting in the carriage".Here,"Englishmen" and "French⁃men" can be understood as a pair of contextual synonyms,referring to "people riding in the same carriage".The words"Englishmen"and"Frenchmen"appearing at the end of this paragraph compare the personalities of people in trouble in the two countries.When the carriage was in danger,the "Frenchmen" screamed wantonly and panicked.But the "Englishmen" are very calm and composed.The two attitudes are in sharp contrast,which makes the "Eng⁃lishmen" and "Frenchmen" appearing here have an opposite relation.Thus,they constitute a set of contextual ant⁃onyms.The dynamicness of contextual antonyms makes the words"Englishmen"and"Frenchmen"in dissimilar po⁃sitions in the text have completely distinct semantic relations.

FUNCTIONS OF CONTEXTUAL ANTONYMS

Textual Functions

Cohesive function

The cohesion of discourse is reflected in the formal structure of sentences.For example,when two sentences are connected by the conjunction"but",it indicates that the two sentences are transition relationship.When two sentenc⁃es are connected by the conjunction "because",it indicates that the two sentences are causal.Through these words,sentences can be closely connected to form a cohesive context.Of course,connectives are not the only means of cohe⁃sion.Halliday and Hasan (1976) divided it into grammatical means and lexical means.The lexical means include repetition,synonyms,hyponyms,antonyms and so on.As a kind of antonyms,contextual antonyms also have a cohe⁃sive function.

(7) Our farm was small-nine acres.It was small enough for me to have explored every part of it.Each of the trees on the place had an attitude and a presence-theelmlooked serene and theoakthreatening,themaplesfriend⁃ly,thehawthornold and crabby.Even the pits on the river flats had their distinct character.

In this example,the "elm" is characterized by tranquility.The "oak" is characterized by aggressiveness.The"maples"is characterized by friendliness.And the"hawthorn"is characterized by old-fashioned and bad-tempered.In this nine-acre farm,every tree is different and has its own special demeanor.Based on this,"elm","oak","ma⁃ples"and"hawthorn"have formed contradictory relations in varying degrees,resulting in gradable antonyms.Hence they create a group of contextual antonyms.In the above paragraph,the contextual antonyms"elm-oak-maps-haw⁃thorn"constitutes a lexical cohesion chain.Through this chain of contextual antonym,each unique tree in the farm is connected in series,and their respective special looks are closely linked together.At the same time,the chain also makes the discourse more complete and achieves better cohesion results.

Coherent function

The coherence of discourse is embodied by the deep-seated sentence meaning of language.It is a potential se⁃mantic representation.Usually,discourse can achieve semantic coherence through various cohesive means;however,in special circumstances,cohesive means are not necessary for discourse coherence.When a certain tacit agreement is reached between the author and the reader in a register,or when linguistic information can be effectively transmit⁃ted,the cohesive devices can be omitted.There is no doubt that the context background is particularly important.The inseparable relationship between contextual antonyms and context determines that contextual antonyms have a coherence function.

(8)I did not know what to say.The gate was now closed.Some of thechildrenburst into tears.The bell rang.Aladycame along,followed by a group ofmen.The men began sorting us into ranks.

The background here is that the protagonist is sent to the kindergarten.When reading this paragraph,the reader has established a tacit understanding with the author.The scene in this text appears in the kindergarten rather than in other places.Therefore,readers can quickly and accurately understand that"lady"and"men"have deviated from their basic meaning.They no longer simply refer to women and men,but kindergarten teachers.In this context,"la⁃dy" and "men" can be regarded as educators;"children" can be regarded as educatees.Consequently,"lady" and"children","men"and"children"can form two groups of contextual antonyms.

Although there is no obvious cohesive device in this paragraph,relying on the context "kindergarten" and two groups of contextual antonyms,the whole paragraph is completely coherent together.The context is more closely linked and the writing is smooth and natural.Besides,the effect of discourse coherence is achieved.

Pragmatic Functions

Negative function

Through the previous analysis of the definition of contextual antonyms,it can be seen that contextual antonyms,as a kind of antonyms,have the characteristics of strong opposition and negation.Therefore,the pragmatic negative function is self-evident.In the discourse,by some means,the negative function is to negate some background infor⁃mation of the text,or to negate the psychological presuppositions that the reader may produce.The readers infer and analyze its negative form to be consistent with the author's intention.The negative function can convey more informa⁃tion by negating a proposition to obtain some effect that the affirmative proposition can not achieve.

(9) Much moved,the young man promises,and mentally decides to give each of his sisters a thousand pounds;and then the comedy begins.For he announces his generous intention to his wife,and Mrs.John Dashwood by no means approves of depriving their own little boy of so large a sum.The thousand pounds are accordingly reduced to five hundred.But even this seems rather much.Might not an annuity to the stepmother be less of a wrench?Yes-but though less of awrenchit might be more of adrain,for"she is very stout and healthy,and scarcely forty."

In this story,the dying Old Dashwood entrusts his stepmother and three sisters to his wealthy son John Dash⁃wood.The touched young man agreed to his father's request and secretly determined to give each sister 1,000 pounds;however,although alimony for stepmothers will reduce the psychological wrench,it will increase the finan⁃cial drain.A decrease in"wrench"will result in an increase in"drain".Thus,in this context,"wrench"and"drain"are contextual antonyms.It is mentioned in the story that although John Dashwood announced his generous intention to his wife,his wife did not agree to let others deprive his son of his property.At the same time,because reducing the psychological pain would increase the financial burden,John Dashwood did not give generously in the end.The cooccurrence of contextual antonyms "wrench" and "drain" negates the generosity of John Dashwood.It presupposes the fact that he will not carry out maintenance of the stepmother and breaks the readers'perception of John Dash⁃wood's generosity.

Contrastive function

Contrast is a popular literary writing technique.The author compares the two sides with distinct differences in some way,so as to highlight the theme and render the atmosphere.Since contextual antonyms have opposing proper⁃ties,it undoubtedly becomes one of the vital means of contrast.The author can use contextual antonyms to compare the two opposite sides to make the distinct more prominent and achieve the desired purpose.

(10)Pragmatismis no more wholly devoid ofabstractionsthanideologyis wholly devoid ofexperience.The di⁃viding line comes whenabstractionsandexperiencecollide and one must give way to the other.At this point the pragmatist rejectsabstractionsand,the ideologist rejectsexperience.

In (10),"pragmatism" and "ideology","abstractions" and "experience" are two pairs of contextual antonyms.The basic meaning of "ideology" refers to the ideological system in the political or economic field.Affected by the context,the pragmatic meaning is broadened,not only referring to the political or economic field,but also focusing on its abstract thoughts or ideas.Here,"ideology"is equivalent to"idealism".Therefore,"pragmatism"and"ideolo⁃gy"are contextual antonyms.Similarly,the meaning of"abstractions"has also changed,which can be understood as empty ideas without practical experience.On this basis,"abstractions"and"experience"constitute a set of contextu⁃al antonyms.

In addition,there is a comparative sentence pattern"no more...than..."in the first sentence.The author embeds the two sides of the existing antagonistic relationship-"pragmatism" and "ideology"-into a comparative model.Just as the ideological system does not completely exclude experience,pragmatism does not completely exclude abstract concepts.This measure directly triggers the contrastive function of contextual antonyms,which makes a significant contrast between "pragmatism" and "ideology".At the same time,the author further describes and explains them in detail with the contextual antonyms "abstractions" and "experience",so as to contrast the two themes more distinct and prominent.

CONCLUSION

For decades,there has been less previous evidence for contextual factors in antonyms.This paper introduces a kind of antonym with new characteristics,that is,contextual antonym,which is inseparable from context.This paper focuses on the definition,characteristics and functions of contextual antonyms.At present,contextual antonyms,as a new language phenomenon,have attracted the attention of foreign language scholars;however,domestic scholars have little research on contextual antonyms.The aim of this paper is expected to attract more scholars' attention to contextual antonyms.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost,I would like to thank my master tutor,Professor Wang Xiangfeng,for his constant help,sup⁃port and encouragement.Without his professional guidance,this paper would be impossible to complete.Besides,my family deserves to be acknowledged for their support during the writing of the thesis and the postgraduate study.