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

Especially given 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 still words that are the same in sound, but differ in spelling ().

In this regard, it only remains for us 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’ll say that without them, the lexical beauty of the Russian language would have suffered significant damage. To understand this, it’s 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 denoting 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", "go - 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 related to different parts of speech, do not have antonyms. There are many words in Russian that cannot be contrasted, but in this case it can be found in a figurative sense.

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

For example, we can say about an animal of different ages “old” and “young” (wolf, goose, ram), but we cannot characterize a car, machine, 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 would be better - "new".

And there are a sufficient number of such examples, therefore, to explain in a nutshell what this is will not work (as well as about synonyms, paronyms and homonyms). I'm not talking about foreigners - for them it is a direct path to the "yellow house".

Varieties of antonyms, on what grounds they are divided

Speaking about the varieties of autonomous entities, we can distinguish:

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 foreigners do not have enough time to figure out what synonyms, antonyms and homonyms are. Native speakers in this regard are incomparably easier.

There are the following varieties of antonymic words and expressions:

Obviously, 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 “love good and hate evil”.

Antonyms in Russian proverbs

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

Everyone, for example, understands the meaning of the proverb, which says that "the sleigh must be prepared in the summer, and the cart in the winter." Antonyms enhance the effect. Each of us knows that “a well-fed hungry one is not a friend”, “the morning is wiser than the evening”, but “in the bins of a bad owner it is either thick or empty.”

Sometimes the opposite is indicated by whole phrases. For example, about a rich person, you can say that "he has money - chickens do not peck", but a poor person has it - "like a cat cried." You can also “keep your eyes open”, or you can “count the crow”, “live with your hump” or “sit on someone else's neck”.

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

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

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

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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.

1. 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.
2. Not every lexical unit has antonyms. They are not, for example, in words sew, institute, book and so on.
3. 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.

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.

Antonyms are words that are different in sound and have opposite meanings: lie - truth, evil - good, silence - speak. Examples of antonyms show that they refer to the same part of speech.

Antonymy in Russian is presented much narrower than synonymy. This is due to the fact that only words that are correlated in terms of quality (good - bad, native - alien, smart - stupid, dense - rare, high - low), temporal (day - night, early - late), quantitative (single - multiple, many - few), spatial (spacious - cramped, large - small, wide - narrow, high - low) features.

There are antonymic pairs denoting the names of states, actions. Examples of antonyms of this kind: rejoice - grieve, cry - laugh.

Types and examples of antonyms in Russian

According to the structure, antonyms are divided into heterogeneous (morning - evening) and single-root (enter - exit). The opposite of the meaning of single-root antonyms is caused by prefixes. However, it should be remembered that the addition to adverbs and prefixes without-, not- in most cases, it gives them the value of a weakened opposite (high - low), so the contrast of their values ​​​​turns out to be "muffled" (low - this does not mean "low"). Based on this, not all prefix formations can be attributed to antonyms, but only those that are the extreme points of the lexical paradigm: strong - powerless, harmful - harmless, successful - unsuccessful.

Antonyms, as well as synonyms, are in close connection with polysemy: empty - serious (conversation); empty - full (cup); empty - expressive (look); empty - meaningful (story). Examples of antonyms show that different meanings of the word "empty" are included in different antonymic pairs. Single-valued words, as well as words with specific meanings (iambic, pencil, desk, notebook, etc.) cannot have antonyms.

Among antonyms, the phenomenon of enantiosemy also exists - this is the development of mutually exclusive, opposite meanings of some polysemantic words: carry (into the room, bring) - carry (out of the room, take away); abandoned (a phrase just said) - abandoned (abandoned, forgotten). The meaning in such cases is specified in the context. Enantiosemy is often the cause of ambiguity in certain expressions. Examples of antonyms of this kind: he listened to the report; the director looked through these lines.

Contextual antonyms are words that are opposed in a specific context: moonlight - sunlight; not a mother, but a daughter; one day - the whole life; wolves are sheep. The polarity of the meanings of such words in the language is not fixed, and their opposition is an individual decision of the author. The writer in such cases reveals the opposite qualities of various concepts and contrasts them in speech. However, these pairs of words are not antonyms.

Introduction

A special place in the Russian language is occupied by antonyms - words that are opposite in meaning. Antonymy reflects the essential aspect of systemic connections in Russian vocabulary. The modern science of language considers synonymy and antonymy as extreme, limiting cases of interchangeability and opposition of words in content. At the same time, if semantic similarity is characteristic of synonymic relations, then semantic difference is characteristic of antonymic relations.

The existence of antonyms in the language is due to 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.

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

Abstract tasks:

Consider the definition of antonyms;

Analyze the relationship of antonyms and polysemy;

Consider and generalize the functions of using antonyms in Russian.

When writing the abstract, educational and methodological materials on the Russian language and culture of speech 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) - these are words that are different in sound, having directly opposite meanings: truth - lies, good - evil, speak - be silent. Antonyms, as a rule, refer to one part of speech and form pairs.

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

Words of other meanings usually do not have antonyms; cf .: house, thinking, writing, twenty, Kyiv, Caucasus. Most of the antonyms characterize qualities (good - bad, smart - stupid, native - alien, thick - rare, etc.); there are many that indicate spatial and temporal relationships (large - small, spacious - cramped, high - low, wide - narrow; early - late, day - night); fewer antonymic pairs with quantitative meaning (many - few; single - numerous). There are opposite names of actions, 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. The word good, for example, evokes the word evil in our minds, the word distant reminds us of the near, to speed up - to 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 indicated feature to a different extent, i.e. its decrease or increase. For example: rich - prosperous - poor - poor - beggar; harmful - harmless - useless - useful. Such a contrast implies a possible degree of strengthening of a sign, quality, action, or gradation (lat. gradatio - a gradual increase). Semantic gradation (gradation), thus, is characteristic only of those antonyms whose semantic structure contains an indication of the degree of quality: young - old, big - small, small - large and under. Other antonymic pairs are devoid of a sign of gradualness: top - bottom, day - night, life - death, man - woman.

Antonyms that have a sign of gradualness 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 speak). On this basis, sometimes they 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, antonyms-conversives can also be distinguished (Latin conversio - change). These are words expressing the relationship of opposites in the original (direct) and modified (reverse) statements: Alexander gave the book to Dmitry. - Dmitry took the book from Alexander; The professor takes the test from the trainee. - The trainee passes the test to the professor.

There is also intra-word antonymy in the language - the antonymy of the meanings of polysemantic words, or enantiosemy (gr. enantios - opposite + sema - sign). This phenomenon is observed in polysemantic words that develop mutually exclusive meanings. For example, the verb depart can mean "to return to normal, feel better," but it can also mean "to die, 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 reservation and under.

By structure, antonyms are divided into heterogeneous (day - night) and single-root (come - leave, revolution - counter-revolution). The former constitute a group of proper lexical antonyms, the latter - lexico-grammatical. In single-root antonyms, the opposite of meaning is caused by various prefixes, which are also capable of entering into antonymic relations; cf .: invest - lay out, attach - set aside, close - open. Therefore, the opposition of such words is due to word formation. However, it should be borne in mind that the addition of prefixes ne-, bez- to quality adjectives, adverbs most often gives them the meaning of only a weakened opposite (young - middle-aged), so that the contrast of their meaning in comparison with non-prefixed antonyms turns out to be “muffled” (middle-aged - it doesn't mean "old"). Therefore, not all prefix formations can be attributed to antonyms in the strict sense of this term, but only those that are extreme members of the antonymic paradigm: successful - unsuccessful, strong - powerless.

Antonyms, as already mentioned, usually form a pair correlation in the 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 “open”, polynomial series, cf.: concrete - abstract, abstract; cheerful - sad, sad, 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 antonymic units are located horizontally.

For example:

Such a correlation of synonymous and antonymic relations reflects the systemic connections of words in the vocabulary. The interrelation of ambiguity and antonymy of lexical units also points to the consistency.

" of Greek origin and is translated as "opposite".

Antonyms are words with the opposite meaning, expressing it with the help of paradigmatic connections.

Antonyms are a very interesting phenomenon of the language, because in the mind of a person are stored in the form of an antonymic pair.

Despite the fact that antonyms are opposed to each other by all their content, their semantic structure is extremely homogeneous. As a rule, antonyms differ in one differential feature.

For example, a pair of antonyms "-" has common semantic features (quality, mood) and only one differential (positive and negative mood).

Due to the homogeneity of the semantic structure, antonyms have almost completely matching compatibility.

Types of antonyms

There are 2 types of antonyms:

1) multi-rooted and single-rooted.

One-root antonyms usually form a non-prefixed and a prefixed word. Examples: friend - foe; bad - not bad; enter - exit; come - walk away.

Different root antonyms are completely different in their external appearance. Examples: stale - fresh; life death.

2) gradual, nongradual and vector antonyms.

Gradual antonyms express the opposite, which implies the existence of intermediate steps between the two extreme points. Examples: brilliant - talented - gifted - average abilities - mediocre - mediocre; - capable - sensible - not stupid - average abilities - stupid - limited - stupid - stupid.

Non-gradual antonyms are concepts between which there is not and cannot be an intermediate degree. Examples: true - false; alive - dead; free - busy; married - single.

Vector antonyms denote the opposite direction of actions, features, qualities and properties. Examples: forget - remember; increase - decrease; supporter - opponent.