Dissimilarity of Senses ( Part 2) Written by Dr. Khalid on March 21, 2024 in Semantic SEO. Last update on March 21, 2024. Don't forget to share this post Exploring Linguistic Opposition: Unveiling the Types of Antonyms - A visual journey through Partial, Cyclic, Rank, and Affinity Antonyms as delineated in 'Dissimilarity of Senses (Part 2)' by Khalid Al-Khateeb, PhD. Discover the intricate relationships that words share, from hierarchical structures to cyclic patterns, and beyond. After discussing the first five types of antonyms: binary, converse, gradable, perpendicular, and extensional.we will discuss in this essay the remaining four types of antonyms: partial, cyclic, rank and affinity. Partial Look at the following pairs: cover, book brake, car wall, room finger, hand pupil, eye Features of Partial Antonymy The first is part of the second: brake, car/ finger, hand), and the same is with the rest of pairs. The first is not the second and the second is not the first. ( a cover is not a book and a book is not a cover) Structurally speaking, we have two ways to express the relation between them of-structure ( the cover of the book, the fingers of the hand etc.), but the opposite is wrong ( the *book of the cover, *the hand of fingers) compound structure (book cover, hand fingers etc.), but the opposite is wrong ( *cover book, *fingers hand etc) Cyclic Group1 Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednsday Thursday Friday Group2 winter spring summer Autumn/fall Group3 January February March April May June etc Features of Cyclic Antonymy Within each group, the sense relation is cyclic, not linear. You can start any where and go in a cyclic or circular manner. For instance, If you start with Saturday, the week ends in Friday. If you start with Monday, the weekends in Sunday and so on. Each word in the group derives its sense from its position in the circle. For example, spring comes after winter, but before summer. Any day can be the first day of the week ( not necessarily Saturday) and any season can be the first season in the year. The most important thing is to keep the order within the cyclic group. Months of the year are also cyclic antonyms. Rank Rank Antonymy Group 1 Assistant Professor Associate Professor Full Professor Group 2 Freshman Sophomore Junior Senior Group 3 Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 Grade 6 Grade 7 The following three groups are rank antonyms. The sense relation is called hierarchical antonymy. Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Academic Ranks of University Professors University Undergraduate Years School Grades up to Grade 12 Senior (Year 4) Grade 4 Full Professor Junior (3 years) Grade 3 Assosiate Professor Sophomore (2years) Grade 2 Assistant Professor Freshman (Year 1) Grade 1 Each group consists of words or phrases with a fixed order going from the lowest rank to the highest rank. Features of Rank Antonymy Antonyms should belong to a group/system They are in a fixed order. They go from the lowest rank to the highest rank. Comparison between cyclic antonymy and rank antonymy Cyclic Antonymy Rank Antonymy Circle order Linear order No specific beginning or end Lowest beginning and highest end Words of the group cover the related system e.g. Saturday…..Friday cover the “week system” Words of the group cover the related system e.g. Grade 1- Grade 12 cover the “system of the school years” Affinity Antonymy Group 1 apple orange banana Group 2 cow sheep hourse Group 3 book encyclopedia magazine Features of Affinity Antonymy e.g. If A is a cow, it can’t be a sheep or a horse. Therefore, the words in each group are in affinity antonymy. Each word in each group is a hyponym of a superordinate Each word in Group 1 is a hyponym of fruit Each word in Group 2 is a hyponym of domestic animals Each word in Group 3 is a hyponym of printed material. Within each group, the words exclude each other. The words in each group are related to each other. That’s why they are called affinity antonyms. In conclusion, this essay has explored four distinctive types of antonyms—partial, cyclic, rank, and affinity—each shedding light on different dimensions of linguistic opposition. In fact, recognizing and utilizing such antonyms enhances our communication skills, allowing us to articulate ideas with precision and clarity. ( Also, See Essay No.2 on Lexical Relations). References Hurford, J., B. Heasley and M. Smith (2007) Semantics: a coursebook (2nd edition) Cambridge University Press George Yule (2014) The Study of Language (5th edition) Cambridge University Press Alkhuli, M.A., An Introduction to Semantics ( 2008) Dar AlFalah, Jordan