contrary terms ungradable opposites contradictory terms gradable antonyms relative terms
complementaries
converses
binary antonyms
relational opposites contraries
2. contrary terms= gradable opposites, gradable antonyms, contraries contradictory terms = complementaries, binary antonyms relative terms = converses, relational opposites
3. Put the following words under Contradictory terms, contrary terms, and relative terms.
right—left lend— borrow male—female same— different small—large doctor—patient dog— bitch teacher—pupil good— bad? man—woman? love—hate boss— employee
3. contradictory terms contrary terms relative terms male--female
small--large
right--left
lend--borrow
dog--bitch good—bad
same--different man--woman
love-- hate doctor--patient
teacher--pupil boss--employee
4. To each of the following contrary terms add the rest of the scale as indicated by the lines. Refer back to the section concerning Contrary
terms.
1） | |hot | | | |cold| 2） |interesting| | |boring|
3） | |good| | | | |bad|
4. 1) boiling | very hot | hot | quite hot | warm | tepid | cool | cold | freezing
2) fascinating | interesting | fairly interesting | rather boring | boring| very boring
3) marvellous, fabulous | very good | good | quite good |OK| not very good | mediocre | bad | awful, dreadful
5. Finish John's utterances with the missing word, so that he contradicts Jane every time.
1) Jane: The newspapers very seldom tell lies. John: No, they very tell lies. 2) Jane: French is a very hard language. John: No, it's a very language. 3) Jane: The water is very hard here. John: No, it isn't, it's quite .
4) Jane: You should put the blanket over him. John: No, it's better to put it him.
5) Jane: A general is below a colonel in rank.
John: No, he isn't, he's him. 6) Jane: Potatoes are scarce just now. John: No, they're quite_ .
7) Jane: I have very forward opinions on most things. John: On the contrary, your opinions are rather ? .
5. 1) often 2) easy 3) soft 4) under 5) above 6) plentiful 7) backward Exercises on hyponymy
1. Group the following words and give a term to cover each: hearts, Mercury, earth, lunch, diamonds, fire, Venus, breakfast, spades, dinner, Earth, water, Mars, supper, clubs, air, Saturn, Jupiter
Keys:
1. patterns: hearts, diamonds, spades, clubs planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn natural elements: earth, fire, water, air meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper
2. One word of each pair is general in meaning and the other is more specific. Circle the general word.
1) cat, animal 2) instrument, flute 3) chair, furniture 4) food, fruit
5) liquid, water 6) emotion, love 7) occupation, teaching 8) captain, officer 9) ceremony, wedding 10) metal, iron
3. Comment on the following two sentences and then improve them by replacing the superordinates with subordinates.
1) One of my relatives got a beautiful flower from the well-known market not long ago.
2) The millionaire spent a large sum of money for the picture by the famous artist.
3. 1) This sentence conveys a very vague idea as a number of words are superordinates: relative, got, flower, well-known market, not long ago, which are too general. It can be improved by using their respective subordinates. My niece bought for two yuan a rare white rose at the Friendship Store Wednesday afternoon. The use of my niece, bought, a rare white rose, Friendship Store, Wednesday afternoon makes the sentence specific and definite.
2) Just like sentence 1), this sentence is also vague and general in terms of meaning. The words millionaire, a large sum of money,
picture, famous artist belong to superordinates because each could be replaced by a more specific term. For example, Lock feller bought the painting \Last Supper\by Leonardo da Vinci for $ 3 million (Note: This is made up). The improved sentence becomes clear and definite.
Exercises on semantic field
1. Arrange the following words into semantic fields, and add five words to each field.
train plate sandals socks taxi dish bus glass bicycle cup slippers shoes stockings saucer aeroplane Keys:
1. (1) train ship bus minibus taxi tricycle bicycle van plane
hovercraft
(2) socks hat stockings shirt slippers skirt