Antonymy: A Corpus-Based Perspective (Routledge Advances in Corpus Linguistics)

212 Pages·2002·0.79 MB·English

by  Steven Jones

Antonymy
Antonymy is the technical name used to describe ‘opposites’, pairs of words
such as poor/rich, love/hate and male/female. Antonyms are a ubiquitous part of
everyday language, and this book provides a detailed, comprehensive account
of the phenomenon.
As well as re-appraising traditional semantic theory and re-evaluating existing
categories of antonymy, the book raises wider issues, such as:
Where do new antonyms come from?
(cid:1)
Which pairs can be regarded as ‘good opposites’?
(cid:1)
Why do antonyms tend to favour a particular sequence in text?
(cid:1)
Does word class affect the function of antonymy?
(cid:1)
These questions are addressed from a corpus-based perspective, using statisti-
cal evidence derived from a 280-million-word corpus of newspaper text. Fresh,
empirical statements are made about antonymy, and over 350 authentic
examples of how ‘opposites’ function in the text are recorded and analysed.
This book demonstrates how traditional linguistic theory can be revisited,
updated and challenged in the corpus age. It is essential reading for anybody
with a particular interest in antonymy or a more general concern about
semantics or corpus linguistics.
Steven Jones is a lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at the
University of Central Lancashire.
Routledge advances in corpus linguistics
Edited by Anthony McEnery
Lancaster University, UK
and Michael Hoey
Liverpool University, UK
Corpus-based linguistics is a dynamic area of linguistic research. The series
aims to reflect the diversity of approaches to the subject, and thus to provide a
forum for debate and detailed discussion of the various ways of building,
exploiting and theorising about the use of corpora in language studies.
1 Swearing in English
Anthony McEnery
2 Antonymy
A corpus-based perspective
Steven Jones
3 Modelling Variation in Spoken and Written English
David Lee
Antonymy
A corpus-based perspective
Steven Jones
London and New York
First published 2002
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004.
© 2002 Steven Jones
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Jones, Steven, 1974–
Antonymy: a corpus based perspective / Steven Jones.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Antonyms—Data processing.
P325.5.A48 J66 2002
401(cid:1).43—dc21
2001058888
ISBN 0-203-16625-6 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-26085-6 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0–415–26374–3(Print Edition)
To Mum and Dad, my favourite antonymous pair

Contents
List of tables x
Foreword xi
Acknowledgements xvii
1 The ‘unique fascination’ of antonymy 1
‘Opposites’ or ‘antonyms’? 1
Why study antonymy? 2
Omnipresent antonyms 7
2 A brief history of antonymy 9
Defining antonymy 9
Traditional categories of antonymy 11
Intuitive approaches vs. data-based approaches 20
Antonymy and corpora 21
Antonymy then and now 23
3 Approaching antonymy afresh: issues of data and
methodology 25
Creating the database 25
Classifying the database 35
Database distribution 39
4 New classes of antonymy I: Ancillary Antonymy 45
What is Ancillary Antonymy? 45
A taxonomy of B-pairs 48
How ancillary are A-pairs? 53
Parallelism 56
Conjunctions 57
A-pair/B-pair detachment 59
The ancillary effect 60
viii Contents
5 New classes of antonymy II: Coordinated Antonymy 61
Distribution of Coordinated Antonymy 61
Frameworks of Coordinated Antonymy 63
Productivity of Coordinated Antonymy 73
The coordinated effect 74
6 New classes of antonymy III: minor classes 75
Comparative Antonymy 76
Distinguished Antonymy 81
Transitional Antonymy 85
Negated Antonymy 88
Extreme Antonymy 91
Idiomatic Antonymy 93
Residual database sentences 95
Major classes vs. minor classes 102
7 The endemicity of antonymy 104
Antonymy and co-occurrence 104
The average antonymous pair 114
‘Good opposites’ 117
So is antonymy endemic? 118
8 Antonym sequence 120
Sequence statistics 120
Sequence rules 123
Why are sequence rules sometimes ignored? 131
Antonyms: irreversible or idiomatic? 136
9 Antonymy, word class and gradability 138
Does word class affect the function of antonymy? 138
Does gradability affect the function of antonymy? 149
Different pairs, similar usage 153
10 Tomorrow’s antonyms 154
Framework productivity 154
Seed word 1: good 156
Seed word 2: natural 160
Seed word 3: style 164
Is antonymous profiling possible? 166
Contents ix
11 Antonymy: past, present and future 168
Antonymy past 168
Antonymy present 171
Antonymy future 175
So what is antonymy then? 178
Appendix 180
Notes 181
Bibliography 188
Index 191