Types of Antonyms

There are many ways to categorize antonyms. Here are categorizations used in the Lexicon project.

• Basic English: What are the different types of Antonyms in English Language [2016 Prateek Agarwal]
  • Complementary:
    Complementary antonyms have no middle ground. Such as: [boy|girl], [off|on], [night|day], [entrance|exit], [exterior|interior], [true|false], [dead|alive], [push|pull], [pass|fail], etc.
  • Relational:
    Relational antonyms are similar to complementary antonyms, except that both must exist for them to be antonyms of each other. Such as: [above|below], [doctor|patient], [husband|wife], [servant|master], [borrow|lend], [give|receive], [predator|prey], [buy|sell], [instructor|pupil], etc.
  • Graded (scalar - polarity), [1997, 2001, Paradis]:
    These antonyms deal with levels of comparison and they can be two words on a scale. Many are relative terms, which can be interpreted differently by different people. Such as [young|elderly], [hard|easy], [happy|wistful], [wise|foolish], [fat|slim], [warm|cool], [early|late], [fast|slow], [dark|pale], [long|short], etc.

• Negated antonyms - unbounded and bounded antonymous adjectives [2006, 2012 Paradis and Willners]:
  There are three patterns of meaning for antonym pairs in relations to negation [2012 Jones, P:100]:
  • Bounded: X = not Y, Y = not X
    • X is synonymous with their negated (positive) antonyms (Y)
    • Y is synonymous with their negated (negative) antonyms (X)
    • Bounded adjectives are absolute and divide some conceptual domain into two distinct parts (mostly not scalar).
    • Some lexical items might be considered scalar, but are limited to the very end of the bounded extreme of the scale, such as (absolutely) terrific and (totally) disgusting.
    • Example: [dead|alive], [false|true], [closed|open], [wrong|right], [empty|full]
    • Negated antonyms can be used in query expansion by substituting synonymous antonyms for better performance.
  • Unbounded: X ≠ not Y, Y ≠ not X
    • Unbounded antonymous meanings typically combine with scalar degree modifiers, such as [verys|fairly]. They occupy the opposite poles of a scale. They are unbounded in the sense that extreme values of something like [long|short] tend towards the extreme but actually never reach an end-point.
    • Examples: [narrow|wide], [light|dark], [low|high], [sad|happy], [rich|poor], [long|short], etc.
    • This type of antonyms should not be used for query expansion. However, they can be used for general NLP applications (see applications).
  • Asymmetric bounded: X = not Y, Y ≠ not X, where X is the negated antonyms
    • Example: wrong = not right, but, right ≠ not wrong
    • A negative orientation is synonymous with a negated positive adjective
    • [the food was bad] = [the food was not good]
    • [It is impossible] = [It is not possible]
    • However, a direct positive term does not have the same meaning as the negated negative term.
    • [the food was good] ≠ [the food was not bad]
    • [It is possible] ≠ [It is not impossible]
    • Negative antonyms need to be identified and included in the LexAntonym list for NLP applications on query expansions.