Paradox of oppositeness of meaning

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Paradox of oppositeness of meaning

• Simultaneous closeness and distance
• Closeness almost identical distributions
• Distance maximally separated meanings
• Resolution of the paradox

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Complementaries

• A pair of complementaries exhaustively divide
  between them a conceptual domain into two
  mutually exclusive compartments.
• What does not fall into one compartment must
  necessarily fall into the other.
• Examples true-false, dead-alive, open-shut

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Complementaries

• Denying one word necessarily entails that the
  other word applies
• Example John is not dead John is alive.
• The anomaly of a sentence denying both words is
  proof of complementarity.
• Example John is neither dead nor alive.

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Complementarities

• Different levels of complementarity
• Complementaries which hold true under all
  circumstances.
• Complementaries which require the proviso in all
  normal circumstances.
• Complementaries which require the proviso
  generally speaking

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Complementaries

• The different levels of complementarity
  illustrate the continuum between
• contradiction
• Example This proposition is true This
  proposition is false
• contrariety
• Example John is tall John is short

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Try to formulate the felicity conditions on
commands
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Felicity Conditions
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Felicity Conditions on Commands
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Interactive

• The opposites have a stimulus-response
  relationship.
• Example command obey (command denotes an
  action which has as its goal the elicitation of
  the response denoted by obey)

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Counteractive
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Reversive

• The opposites describe respectively a continuance
  of state and a change to an alternative state. It
  describes a change of direction.
• Examples live die, start keep on stop

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Satisfactive

• Opposites where one term denotes an attempt to do
  something and the opposite denotes successful
  performance.
• Example try succeed

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Basic properties of antonymic pairs

• Antonymic pairs are gradable opposites

Tall
Short
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Basic properties of antonymic pairs

• Antonymic pairs are gradable opposites

• The members of a pair denote degrees of some
• variable property

Very Tall
Very Short
Tall
Short
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Basic properties of antonymic pairs

• Antonymic pairs are gradable opposites
• The members of a pair denote degrees of some
  variable property

• When intensified the members of a pair move
  further
• away from each other on the scale

Very Tall
Very Short
Tall
Short
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Basic properties of antonymic pairs

• Antonymic pairs are gradable opposites
• The members of a pair denote degrees of some
  variable property
• When intensified the members of a pair move
  further away from each other on the scale

• There is an area on the scale where neither
  antonym
• can be properly referred to (the pivotal
  region)

Very Tall
Very Short
Tall
Short
Medium height (pivotal region)
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Impartiality and Commitment

• Impartiality
• When used in a question the adjective does not
  imply a particular value
• Example
• How tall is Pat?
• Commitment
• When used in a question the adjective implies a
  particular value
• Example
• How short is Pat?

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highlow, deepshallow

• All 4 belong to group I, polar antonyms
• Polar antonyms there is a pseudo-comparative
  corresponding to each member of a pair
• Example of pseudo-comparative this box is light
  but its heavier than that one (p. 207)
• (heavier meaning of greater weight)

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highlow, deepshallow

• Polar antonyms are
• evaluatively neautral
• objectively descriptive
• and they
• generally measure underlying sealed property in
  conventional units, e.g. inches, grams or miles
  per hour

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highlow, deepshallow

• In connection with how X is it-questions
• Polar antonyms only one member of a pair yields
  a normal how-question and this question is then
  impartial , meaning it expresses no presumptions
  or expectations concerning for example the height
  or deepness of the questioned item (p. 208).
• how high is it? ? how low is it?
• how deep is it? ? how shallow is it?

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highlow, deepshallow

• Different senses/lexical units of the adjectives
• Using high as an example
• 1. its high
• 2. This one is higher than that one
• 3. how high is it?
• 4. A how high is it?
• B ? it isnt Zeugmatic
• Sentences 2 and 3 contain the same sense of
  high, while 1 contains a different sense of
  high
• 4 is zeugmatic

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highlow, deepshallow

• The two different senses are systematically
  related and their respective units can be
  assigned to the same lexeme.
• Illustration
• A single scale underlies a pair of polar antonyms
• low1 high1
• HEIGHT

How high2?
higher2
lower2
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highlow, deepshallow

• A single scale underlies a pair of polar antonyms

low1
High1
HEIGHT
shallow1
deep1
DEPTH
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how cheap is that coat?

• Cheap and expensive are polar antonyms
• If you ask the how X is it-question
• how expensive is that coat?
• ? how cheap is that coat?
• you can see that, as the book says, only one
  member of a pair of polar antonyms, yields a
  normal how-question, in this case expensive,
  and this question is then impartial.

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how cheap is that coat?

• Also, the normality of the twice/half
  as-expression and the how-question, depends on
  the existence of a scale of X-ness. Since there
  is no scale of cheapness, the following sounds
  odd
• ? half/twice as cheap as the other
• ? how cheap is that coat?

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inherentness and speakers presupposition

• The definition of inherentness
• Bills accident was worse than Johns.
• ?Johns accident was better than Bills?
• Replacement of the term worse with the term
  better
• The addressee knows about the situation

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inherentness and speakers presupposition

• The definition of speakers presupposition
• A presupposition is background belief, relating
  to an utterance, that
• must be mutually known or assumed by the speaker
  and addressee for the utterance to be considered
  appropriate in context
• generally will remain a necessary assumption
  whether the utterance is placed in the form of an
  assertion, denial, or question, and

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inherentness and speakers presupposition

• can generally be associated with a specific
  lexical item or grammatical feature
  (presupposition trigger) in the utterance.
• John regrets that he stopped doing linguistics
  before he left Cambridge
• Someone uniquely identifiable to speaker and
  addressee as John

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inherentness and speakers presupposition

• John stopped doing linguistics before he left
  Cambridge.
• John was doing linguistics before he left
  Cambridge
• John left Cambridge.
• John had been at Cambridge.
• The relationship between inherentness and
  (speakers) presupposition is that both the
  speaker and the addressee need to know something
  about the situation

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Typical wordclasses that contain antonomous
pairs

• implicit superlatives
• stative verbs
• These two wordclasses have these characteristics
  in common
• They are not fully gradable
• ?I quite love him.? I hate him, a little.
• ?It is slightly beautiful. ?It is slightly ugly.

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Typical wordclasses that contain antonomous pairs

• They are both modifiable by unstressed absolutely
• I absolutely love it! I absolutely hate it!
• It is absolutely beautiful! It is absolutely
  ugly!
• They can both be prosodically intensified
• I love it! I hate it!
• It is so beautiful! It is so ugly!