The Use and Application of Antonyms in English Teaching and Learning

The Use and Application of Antonyms in English Teaching and Learning ZHANG Ying(Wuhan Polytechnic University,Wuhan430023,China)Abstract:Antonyms are word pairs that are opposite in meaning.In terms of grammatical and semantic functions,antonyms mainly have four uses,namely,defining meanings of words,expressing an opposite idea efficiently,being used for achieving emphasis and being used for analyzing problems and revealing contradiction.An effective application of the characteristics and uses of antonyms in English teaching can not only benefits students in vocabulary memorizing,but also improves their ability to use the language flex⁃ibly.This essay will mainly discuss the application of antonyms in language teaching and learning from three aspects,i.e.words and phrases,sentences and paragraphs,and texts and contexts.In the level of words and phrases,we mainly apply antonyms for rec⁃ognizing and remembering words;in the level of sentences and paragraphs,we mainly focus on appreciation and application of ant⁃onyms for achieving rhetorical effects;in the level of texts and contexts,we will discuss how to apply antonyms to express attitudes and emotions.Key words:antonym;use;application;teaching中图分类号：G424文献标识码：A文章编号：1009-5039(2019)15-0264-021IntroductionAntonyms,from the Greek anti("opposite")and onoma ("name"),are word pairs that are opposite in meaning,such as hot and cold,fat and skinny,and up and down.There are a variety of ‘oppositeness’.Linguists and semanticists classify antonyms into different categories using different terminology.According to them, there are three major groups semantically:contradictory terms (complementaries),contrary terms(contraries)and relative terms (converses).Just like synonym and homonym,each kind of antonym has its own characteristics and uses.Making a good use of ant⁃onyms helps us in defining meanings of words and phrases,appreci⁃ating literary works,achieve rhetorical effects in our writing and communication so as to create some unexpected effectiveness.We also apply these characteristics and uses of antonyms in English teaching and learning so that students can memorize vocabulary more easily and do a better work in their own writing.2The use of antonyms2.1Antonyms can be used to define meanings of wordsAntonyms have various practical uses and have long proved helpful and valuable in defining the meanings of words.It is partic⁃ularly useful in defining abstract words,such as some adjectives. For example,according to the Oxford dictionary,the definition of the word old is“having lived a long time;no longer young”.Ant⁃onyms are also very useful in defining polysemic words.By using antonyms we can easily distinguish one meaning of a polysemic word from another.Take the polysemant fresh for example.It ap⁃pears in a number of phrases of the same structure:fresh bread, fresh air,fresh flowers,fresh look,yet it does not have the same meaning in each case.Instead of listing all the definitions in each phrase,the different shades of meaning are simply and clearly brought out by replacing them with antonyms:stale bread,stuffy air,faded flowers,tired look(张维友,2004:135).The defining fea⁃ture of antonyms can also be well illustrated in sentences.For ex⁃ample,“Unlike her gregarious sister,Jane is a shy,unsociable per⁃son.”The meaning of gregarious is reflected unmistakably by the antonym unsociable without ing antonyms to infer an unknown words’meaning is also a skill that we always employed in reading and listening.2.2Antonyms can be used for efficient expression of an oppo⁃site ideaAntonyms are useful in enabling us to express economically the opposite of a particular thought,often for the sake of contrast. Many idioms are formed with antonyms.They look neat and pleas⁃ant,and sound rhythmic.Let’s look at following examples:fire and water,heat and cold,right and left,old and new,heavy and light, dine and wine,old and young etc.However,idioms consist of ant⁃onyms do not always show the contrast between two poles or two ex⁃tremes,that is to say,the meanings of such phrases sometimes can⁃not be easily inferred from the component antonyms.They may convey the meaning of wholeness,like here and there,means every⁃where.Another example,He remained loyal to me through thick and thin.In this sentence,thick and thin means in spite of all the difficulties.So it is necessary to make out the implied meaning of such kind of pair antonyms.2.3Antonyms can be used to achieve emphasis Antonyms are often used to form antithesis or parallelism to achieve emphasis.Antithesis is the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas,usually in a balanced way.By putting contrasting ideas together,two opposite sides of a thing are shown simultaneously.At first sight,the two收稿日期：2019-02-05修回日期：2019-02-20作者简介：张颖（1987—），讲师，国家二级心理咨询师，从事英语教学8年，毕业于香港中文大学，硕士研究生，主要研究方向英语语言学及二语习得。