Anatomy of the Russian language, stylistic function of antonyms. Synonyms and antonyms

Antonyms are words of the same part of speech with opposite lexical meanings.

The main stylistic function of antonyms is to be a lexical means of opposition, a contrasting image of natural and social phenomena, character traits, etc. Contrast as a stylistic device is widely used in colloquial and everyday phraseological units, proverbs and sayings. The semantic capacity and imagery of folk sayings is often created by antonyms.

For example: neither alive nor dead; Learning is light and ignorance is darkness; What you came with is what you left with. Stylistic functions antonyms are varied. In one case, they constructively organize the text, in another, they contrast the characters of the heroes of the works, in the third, they act in a clarifying function.

For example, antonyms outside - inside, right - left, first - then serve to express spatial or temporal relationships in the text.

The phenomenon of antonymy underlies the oxymoron - a bright stylistic device of figurative speech, consisting in the creation of a new concept by combining words with contrasting meanings

Active and passive vocabulary. Stylistic functions of historicisms and archaisms.

Since the consolidation of new words and meanings in the language and especially the departure from the language of outdated ones is a gradual and lengthy process, then in vocabulary In the language as a whole, there are always two layers of words at the same time - an active vocabulary of words, on the one hand, and a passive vocabulary, on the other.

Active vocabulary includes all the vocabulary that is familiar and everyday used in one or another area of ​​linguistic communication, which has neither a hint of obsolescence nor a hint of novelty. The active stock includes both words of general national use and words that are limited in their use (terms, professionalisms, book words, emotional vocabulary, etc.), so it cannot be identified with the active stock of words of a particular native speaker. The complex and extensive terminology of physicists, for example, will be largely unknown to linguists, doctors, gardeners, workers, etc. The emotional vocabulary currently existing in the language is intolerant in the sphere of official relations, in scientific works etc., but this does not make either the terminology of physicists or the currently existing emotional vocabulary cease to be facts of modern vocabulary.

Passive vocabulary includes everything from the lexicon that is not familiar and everyday used in it, defining its system as modern, i.e. everything that is rarely used, that has not yet become or has ceased to be necessary, habitual and obligatory in one or another sphere of communication.

In other words, the passive vocabulary of a language as a whole includes

1) words that are leaving the language (obsolete words)

2) words that have not yet fully entered into general literary use or have just appeared in it (neologisms).

Historicisms are outdated words that have fallen out of use due to the disappearance of the realities that they denoted. Names of disappeared phenomena, objects, concepts. If necessary, name any already disappeared phenomenon, object, thing, etc. We willy-nilly resort to historicisms, because in the modern Russian literary language they have no synonyms.

For example, historicisms are the words boyar, coachman, stolnik, falconer, altyn, epancha, feryaz (men's long-skirted dress), chain mail, samopal, arquebus, unicorn (a type of cannon), etc. Archaisms are names of objects and phenomena that exist, are repressed, however, their synonyms are words of active use (cf. lovitva - hunting, voyage - travel, koi - which, Baltic - Baltic, stora - curtain, piit - poet, etc.).

Historicisms, as a rule, are used mainly in specialized literature, where they perform a nominative function - they serve as names for the realities of past eras.

Archaisms and their stylistic functions in literature are diverse.

1. Along with historicisms, they are used to create historical flavor

2. Archaisms are used to characterize characters in speech

3. Archaisms can give speech a touch of solemnity and pathos.

4. Often in artistic prose, archaisms are used as a means of creating irony, satire, and parody. Typically, a similar effect is achieved by using archaisms against the background of everyday or reduced vocabulary.

Stylistic functions of neologisms.

Neologisms are words that, having appeared in the language as certain meaningful units, have not yet entered the active vocabulary of the language. They only remain neologisms until they finally master the language and merge into active stock vocabulary is still perceived as words that have a connotation of freshness and unusualness.

1. In scientific, industrial and technical, official business literature, neologisms perform mainly a nominative function, i.e. nominative.

2. In works of fiction and journalism, the use of neologisms is usually associated with a clearly expressed stylistic task. This applies primarily to individual neoplasms, which are often characterized by greater expressiveness and figurativeness.

Thus, the main purpose of neologisms M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin - to serve as an expressive means of satire: they dreamed of bribing a peasant; spitting in the eyes; shaking of the ankles; darting glances; warping of the mouth; pounding water; crushing of teeth; eavesdropping interest; dancing pastime.

About the word creation of V.V. Mayakovsky and the stylistic function of the new formations he created have been discussed more than once. True, for the most part, Mayakovsky’s neologisms remained new formations of individual use, and the poet himself did not attribute to them the properties of vocabulary commonly used in the literary language. Mayakovsky’s word creation was based on the search for an economical and capacious form of creating an image, a protest against the aestheticized “beauty” of the Symbolists’ vocabulary, and the desire to find new shades of meaning in words. Neologisms are very expressive in such combinations as the bell ringing above the door all day; crutches castanet ring; the street writhes tongueless; two-meter-tall snake; the book of time with a thousand pages; hundred thousand cavalry running. Economical and figurative words are prazhablen (pressed down like a toad), isheshekhod (to walk), etc.

Stylistic use of words of foreign origin.

Borrowing is an element of a foreign language (word, morpheme, syntactic construction, etc.), transferred from one language to another as a result of language contacts, as well as the very process of transferring elements of one language to another.

Exoticisms denote concepts characteristic of foreign peoples or countries.

Barbarisms are truly foreign words and expressions interspersed in the Russian text, fully mastered or not mastered at all due to phonetic and grammatical features. They, as a rule, are used in forms that do not exist in the Russian language and are often conveyed by means of the source language: avenue, dandy, monsieur, frau, tete-a-tete (French letters head to head), cito (Latin urgently).

Barbarisms, like exoticisms, perform various functions:

1) They call something that has no name in Russian;

2) Serve as a speech characteristic of the character;

3) With their help, a “presence effect” is achieved;

4) They usually give the text a humorous, satirical or ironic tone.

5) Foreign words used in the Russian language perform a certain stylistic role, on which the frequency of their use in different functional styles depends.

It has been established that most foreign words in scientific style(these are, first of all, terms), much less in journalistic, even less in official business and artistic. Scientists, cultural figures, and writers have always stated that only necessity can make the use of foreign words expedient.

Synonyms- words that are different in spelling, but close or identical in meaning, expressing the same concept, but differing in shades of meaning or stylistic coloring. Synonyms are divided into three groups:

1)semantic, which differ in shades of meaning ( red, scarlet, crimson);

2)stylistic, which differ in stylistic coloring

Differ in terms of belonging to different styles ( young– conversational style, newlyweds– formal business style);

They differ in the scope of use, attitude towards literary language (talk– literary, drone- dialectal);

Different in terms of attitude towards active and passive vocabulary; usually one of the synonyms is outdated ( actor - performer, eyes - eyes);

They are distinguished by their emotional and expressive coloring ( outwit– neutral, throw- emotional);

Euphemisms serve to designate those words that seem undesirable to the author ( blow your nose - clean your nose with a tissue);

3)semantic-stylistic, which differ in both shades of meaning and stylistic coloring ( work– liter., work- books, work hard- colloquial).

In addition to different-rooted synonyms, there are single-root (single-root) synonyms that differ from each other either in stylistic coloring or compatibility ( fight - fight, fisherman - fisherman). Word variants that differ in pronunciation, spelling or morphological features do not qualify as synonyms (spelling variants: TV O horn - creation O G; spelling options: kinetic – kinesic; morphological: rail - rail). They stand apart identical synonyms, identical in meaning and stylistic coloring. These are, as a rule, words of different origin, but denoting the same concept ( linguistics - linguistics). There are not only lexical synonyms, but also syntactic ones (walked by the shore - walked along the shore; linen towel - towel made of flax; when she walked along the street - walking along the street, she ...).

In speech, synonyms perform various functions, the main ones being the following:

1) the function of the most accurate expression of thought ( The sun was shining, the grass was shining in the diamonds of the rain, and the river was sparkling gold.);

2) clarification function - in one context synonyms are used that complement each other ( He seemed lost, as if he was afraid);

3) clarification function - synonyms explain words that may not be clear to the reader: borrowings, dialectisms, professionalisms ( Anarchy, or mayhem, has begun);

4) comparison function - synonyms indicate differences in semantics ( Invite a doctor and call a paramedic; The boss is not late, he is delayed);

5) opposition function ( He did not walk, but dragged along, without lifting his feet from the ground.);

6) substitution function - synonyms help avoid repetition of words ( Construction has been completed, construction work has also been completed);

7) strengthening function - stringing synonyms serves to strengthen the attribute, action ( It will either go out, or go out, or not light up at all.). If each subsequent synonym strengthens the previous one, a gradation is created (My comrades burned in the tanks: to ashes, to ashes, to the ground).

8) the function of a means of connecting sentences in the text.

Antonyms- words with opposite meanings. They are single-rooted ( entered - left) and multi-rooted ( kind angry). A special type of antonyms is enantiosemy. This is antonymy within a polysemantic word, when different meanings of a given word enter into antonymous connections ( priceless - no price (very expensive) and worth nothing (cheap)).

Functions of antonyms

1) lexical means of expressing antithesis ( The powerful are always to blame for the powerless);

2) can be used in a sentence with negation ( In the chaise sat a gentleman, not handsome, but not bad-looking either, not too fat, not too thin). This technique emphasizes the mediocrity of what is being described, the absence of bright features and characteristics in it.

3) the use of one of the members of the antonymic pair with negation ( The world has not aged - it has become younger). Such a combination of antonyms enhances and emphasizes the meaning of the antonym that is given without negation.

4) puns are built on the basis of antonyms ( It was so late that it was already early; The young woman was not young);

5)antonyms are the basis of the oxymoron ( living corpse, hot snow);

6) antonyms are the basis of antiphrases. Antiphrasis– this is the use of a word in the opposite meaning, i.e. the author, in order to create a comic effect, uses one of the members of the antonymic pair, although in terms of meaning it is necessary to use the other ( Then the process proceeded with extraordinary speed, for which our courts are so famous.).

7) help writers show the completeness of coverage of the phenomenon ( Everything has passed, both happiness and sorrow);

8) can reflect the alternation of actions ( Let's make up and quarrel);

9) may indicate a quick change of action ( Lightning flashed in the distance, flared up and went out)

10) act as a means of communication of proposals ( Every time has its own cruelty. Kindness is one for all time).

Homonyms- words that are the same in sound, spelling or in some grammatical form, but have completely different meanings. There are lexical homonyms, homophones, homographs, homoforms. Lexical homonyms- words that have the same sound and spelling, but have nothing in common in semantics ( braid, bank). Homophones- words that sound the same but are spelled differently ( lu G– lu To ). Homographs- words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently A mok - deputy O To). Omoforms– words that coincide only in a certain grammatical form ( in a bank – glass jar and savings bank).

Functions of homonyms:

1. The use of homonyms in one phrase emphasizes the meaning of consonant words and thereby gives expression to speech (The world needs peace).

2. Puns are made on homonyms (The tram was a battlefield).

Archaisms have very significant expressive capabilities. Archaisms along with historicisms, they are considered obsolete words and are divided into several types (see table):

In the text, archaisms perform the following stylistic functions: they recreate the flavor of the era; give speech a solemn, sublime sound; create a comic effect; contribute to the authenticity of the speech characteristics of the characters.

Related information.

STYLISTIC FUNCTIONS OF ANTONYMS

Problems of stylistics every year attract the attention of an ever wider range of linguists and literary scholars. Stylistics uses data from lexicology, grammar, phonetics, phraseology, etc. However, unlike these disciplines, it is not concerned with the elements of language as such, but with their expressive potential in context - their stylistic function. This problem is touched upon in almost every text analysis, because it is the stylistic function that is meant by those who state “the author wants to say” or “this is said to show.”

The stylistic function is defined as the expressive potential of the interaction of linguistic means in the text, ensuring the transmission, along with the subject-logical content of the text, of the expressive, emotional, evaluative and aesthetic information embedded in it. While other branches of linguistics study the entire system of linguistic means of the corresponding level as a whole, stylistics considers their expressive qualities, their functioning and interaction in conveying thoughts and feelings in a given text and, consequently, their role in the ideological impact of the text on the reader. [Arnold 2002: 1]

This paper examines the stylistic function that arises on the basis of the linguistic structure of the text, where elements of all levels interact as two-way units that have form and content. When considering the stylistic function of linguistic means in a pragmatic aspect, it is necessary to take into account the emotions and attitudes that the author conveys to the reader, the expression of the speaker’s attitude to what is being communicated, to the interlocutor, to himself, to the situation and assessment of the situation.

The stylistic means involved in the stylistic function help the reader to correctly place emphasis and highlight the main thing, that is, they serve to protect the message from distortion. The stylistic function thus ensures reliable communication and prevents misunderstanding.

High stylistic potential lies in the use of antonyms.

Antonyms (gr. аnty – against + onyma – name) are words that have different sounds and opposite meanings. The existence of antonyms in language is determined by the nature of our perception of reality in all its contradictory complexity, in the unity and struggle of opposites. Therefore, contrasting words, as well as the concepts they denote, are closely related to each other. Among the linguistic features of antonyms is the regularity of their contrasting associative connections, in other words, the mention of one member of an antonymic pair can evoke the idea of ​​another. Naming, for example, such properties of human character as kindness, tenderness, sensitivity, the speaker and listener can compare them with their opposites - anger, rudeness, heartlessness. That is, the word good evokes the word evil in our minds, reminds us far of the word close. The names of such phenomena and objects that are correlative and belong to the same category of objective reality are antonymized as mutually exclusive concepts. It follows from this that antonyms not only deny each other, but at the same time presuppose each other. [Kuznets, Skrebnev 2000: 2]

The stylistic functions of antonyms are expressed in special figures speeches that are widely used in the implementation of the aesthetic function of language. One of the most common figures in artistic speech based on antonymy is antithesis (gr. antithesis - opposition) - a technique of contrasting verbal images that are contrasting in nature, revealing the contradictory essence of the signified, the incompatibility of various aspects of an object, phenomenon, or the objects and phenomena themselves. This stylistic figure enhances expressiveness due to the collision of directly opposing concepts in one context.

The main stylistic function of antonyms is to express the opposite, which is inherent in their semantics and does not depend on the context. That is, antonyms are a lexical means of expressing antithesis.

Antithesis as a stylistic device is widespread in folk poetry, for example in sayings: Score twice before you cut once. Desperate diseases call for desperate remedies. Keep your mouth shut and your ears open.

Antonyms are used as a vivid means of expression in artistic speech. The writer sees life in contrasts, and this testifies not to inconsistency, but to the integrity of his perception of reality.

The function of opposition can be used for different stylistic purposes: to indicate the limit of manifestation of quality; to actualize a statement or enhance an image or impression; to affirm two opposing properties, qualities, actions; to recognize some average, intermediate quality, property, etc.

Antonyms - designations of opposite principles are widely used as a stylistic device to designate the contradictory essence of phenomena, the dialectics of life. “ To say that man consists of strength and weakness, of understanding and blindness, of insignificance and greatness, – wrote D. Diderot, – this does not mean condemning him, but defining his essence”

Antithesis reveals the contradictory essence of the signified, the incompatibility of various aspects of an object, phenomenon, or the objects and phenomena themselves. This stylistic figure enhances expressiveness due to the collision of directly opposing concepts in one context. This phenomenon is widely observed in works of art. For example, Jack London “White Fang”:

It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity at the futility of life and effort of life. - This is eternal wisdom- domineering, elevated above the world - laughed, seeing futility life, the futility of struggle.

It moved with commingled mistrust and daring, cautiously observing the men, its attention fixed on the dogs.- He was coming cowardly and at the same time brazenly, focusing all attention on the dogs, but not losing sight of the people.

What masterful treachery lurked behind that apparently harmless piece of meat. - Which deceit lies in this harmless piece of meat.

Publicists often refer to the antithesis, often in titles literary works, various kinds of articles, notes: “Paris day and night”(A. Kuleshova). Contrast enhances the emotionality of speech. Many titles of works are built on the principle of antithesis: "War and Peace"; "The Living and the Dead". Antonymy is especially often used in the headlines of newspaper and magazine articles: "Chemistry is good and evil."

The opposite of antithesis is the technique of denying the contrasting features of an object: “ There was a gentleman sitting in the chaise,not handsome, but alsonot bad-looking, not too fat, not too thin, impossiblesay toold, howevernot too young”(Gogol). This stringing of antonyms with negations emphasizes the mediocrity of what is being described, its lack of bright, clearly defined features. [Novikova 1973: 3]

In T. Goode's poem “November,” fourteen out of fifteen lines contain only one-part negative constructions, beginning with the negation no.

No sun – no moon! / No morning – no noon! / No dawn – no dusk – no proper time of day – / No sky – no earthly view – / No distance looking blue …

A monotonous series of persistently repeating negative constructions conveys the monotony and boredom of autumn.

The stylistic effect of contrast created by antonyms, which is a very effective means of increasing expressiveness, is used not only in fiction and journalism, but also in stable phrases, for example: Thelongandtheshortofit;fromtoptotoe;neitherherenor there. [Kuznets, Skrebnev 2000: 2]

The phenomenon of antonymy underlies the oxymoron (from the gr. oxymoron - witty-stupid) - a bright stylistic device of figurative speech, consisting in the creation of a new concept by combining words with contrasting meanings, revealing the inconsistency of what is being described. For example: And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true(A. Tennyson).

IN English poetry And in prose, the oxymoron occurs at all times. E. Spencer wrote in the 16th century: And painful pleasure turns to pleasing pain.

The greatest modern poet W. Auden in the poem “On the Death of Yeats” writes: With the farming of a verse / Make a vineyard of the curse, / Sing of human unsuccess / In a rapture of distress.

Combination araptureofdistress- an oxymoron. The violation of lexical compatibility in this case is caused by the contrast of semantic agreement: pair rapture::distress, has common semes, but at the same time contains contrasting semes. Both words – rapture And distress- express very strong feelings, but in the first case delight, admiration- the emotion is extremely pleasant, and the second word - grief, disaster– expresses the highest degree of suffering.

Oxymoron is widely used in its characterological function. Thus, the English poet and critic S. Spencer, seeing a contradictory character in the image of the hero of E. Hemingway’s novel “Fiesta” Jake, calls him “ self-consciouslyunself-conscious,boastfullymodestandhe-man”.

In conversational oxymorons like terriblysmart,awfullybeautiful etc. semantic agreement may be completely absent, since the first component has generally lost its lexical denotative meaning, retaining and strengthening the connotation of expressiveness. [Arnold 2002: 1]

The deliberate collision of logically and semantically opposing concepts is an effective technique. It prepares readers to perceive contradictory, complex phenomena, and often the struggle of opposites.

The stylistic functions of antonyms are not limited to expressing contrast; they are diverse. In one case, they constructively organize the text, in another, they contrast the characters of the heroes of the works, in the third, they act in a clarifying function. For example, antonyms inside (inside) –outside (outside), right (right) – left (left) serve to express spatial or temporal relationships in the text. Antonyms with a temporal meaning show the sequence of events: atthebeginning (at first) – intheend (at the end). Antonyms with the meaning of location emphasize the scale of the scenes. Revealing the characters' characters, the authors use antonyms that express the qualitative opposition of concepts (evaluative nouns, qualitative adjectives: enemy - friend, poor - rich).

Antonyms, as designations of opposite principles, help writers show the completeness of coverage of phenomena: “ It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,…,we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…”(Dickens’s novel “A tale of Two Cities”).

Some antonymic pairs appear in speech as a lexical unit, acquiring a phraseological character: both old and young, both, sooner or later. Their use introduces colloquial connotations into literary speech.

When antonyms collide, speech often takes on an ironic tone. Puns are based on antonyms: Whereisthebeginningofthatendbywhichthebeginningends? – Where is the beginning of the end with which the beginning ends?

When studying the stylistic use of antonyms in artistic speech, one should keep in mind that they expressive capabilities are realized not only in direct opposition, but also in the case when any member of the antonymic pair is absent in the text. Thanks to their stable connections, antonyms are perceived in speech against the background of their “counterterms.” The use of antonyms in speech should be stylistically motivated.

Thus, the stylistic functions of antonyms are varied. They express opposition, denote the contradictory essence of phenomena, the dialectic of life, and this opposition enhances the emotionality of speech and sometimes helps in creating ironic shades. Also, the collision of contradictory concepts highlights the characters of the heroes of the works, constructively organizes the text, shows the sequence of events, emphasizes the scale of the scenes, the completeness of the coverage of phenomena. Their use makes speech more expressive and semantically richer.

Literature:

1. Arnold. Modern English: Textbook for universities. – 5th ed., rev. and additional – M.: Flinta: Nauka, 2002.

2. , Skrebnev in English. – M., 2000.

4. Stylistic functions of units at different levels of language: Interuniversity collection of scientific works. Proceedings – Krasnoyarsk: KSPI, 1985.

5. Crystal D., Davy D. Investigating English Style. – LDN, 1989.

Student 5ph/f, group “I” LPI KrasGUf

Scientific adviser:

Art. Rev. department in. languages.

See full lists:

antonym poetry Akhmatova

Stylistic functions of antonyms

The main stylistic function of antonyms is to be a lexical means of opposition, a contrasting image of natural and social phenomena, character traits, etc. Contrast as a stylistic device is widely used in colloquial and everyday phraseological units, proverbs and sayings. The semantic capacity and imagery of folk sayings is often created by antonyms. For example: neither alive nor dead, neither back nor forth, neither hot nor cold; What you came with is what you left with.

Winged expressions of the classics of world and Russian literature are also often built on antonymy: He who does not know foreign languages ​​has no idea about his own (I.V. Goethe); There is nothing more stupid than the desire to always be smarter than everyone else (F. La Rochefoucauld); There are no bad roles for good actors (F. Schiller); The powerful are always to blame for the powerless (I. Krylov); The houses are new, but the prejudices are old ( A. Griboyedov); Both we hate and we love by chance (M. Lermontov). Antonyms are often used by writers in the titles of works: “War and Peace” by L. Tolstoy, “Thick and Thin” by A. Chekhov,

“Days and Nights”, “The Living and the Dead” by K. Simonov, “What is Good and What is Bad” by V. Mayakovsky, etc.

The stylistic functions of antonyms are varied. In one case, they constructively organize the text, in another, they contrast the characters of the heroes of the works, in the third, they act in a clarifying function. For example, antonyms outside - inside, right - left, first - then serve to express spatial or temporal relationships in the text [Matveev 2003:32].

This is how N. Gogol describes the hotel where Chichikov stayed: “The outer façade of the hotel corresponded to its interior; it was very long, two floors; the lower one was not plastered and remained in dark red bricks, even darker from the wild weather changes and already somewhat dirty in themselves; the top one was painted with eternal yellow paint..." (" Dead Souls").

Antonyms with a temporal meaning show the sequence of events. For example, I. Turgenev in the story “Mumu” ​​writes about Gerasim: “He entered his closet, laid the rescued puppy on the bed, covered him with his heavy overcoat, ran first to the stable for straw, then to the kitchen for a cup of milk.” Antonyms with a temporary meaning can also be used to reveal the inner world of heroes [Metlyakova 2000:45]. Let us recall at least this description of the lady from the same story: “...she rarely went out and lived out her life in solitude last years of his stingy and bored old age. Her day, joyless and stormy, has long passed; but her evening was blacker than night.”

In A. Tvardovsky’s poem “Vasily Terkin”, antonyms with the meaning of location emphasize the scale of the battle scenes:

Front left, front right,

And in the February blizzard haze

A terrible battle is going on, bloody,

Mortal combat is not for the sake of glory - For the sake of life on earth.

Revealing the characters of his heroes, the author uses antonyms that express the qualitative opposition of concepts (evaluative nouns, qualitative adjectives, etc.: enemy - friend, poor - rich, thin - fat, stupid - smart, etc.). Very revealing in In this regard, A. Pushkin’s poem “You and I”:

You are rich, I am very poor;

You are a prose writer, I am a poet;

You are blushing like poppies,

I am like death, skinny and pale.

In the function of clarification, antonyms appear in the following passage from N. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”: “Another kind of men were fat or like Chichikov, that is, not so fat, but not thin either...”.

Antonyms are used in artistic speech and journalism as an expressive means of creating contrast. Most often, antonyms are found as part of antitheses in poetic works [Matveev 2003: 32].

For example:

Long live the sun! Let the darkness disappear!

Antonyms create contrast in proverbs, sayings, and popular expressions:

Being a guest is good, but being at home is better; The well-fed does not understand the hungry; It is better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick; Learning is light and ignorance is darkness.

Antonyms are words of the same part of speech with opposite lexical meaning: question - answer, stupid - smart, loud - quiet, remember - forget. They are usually opposed on some basis: day And night - by time, easy And heavy– by weight, up And at the bottom- by position in space, bitter And sweet- to taste, etc.
Antonymy relationships can exist between words (North South), between words and phraseological units (win - lose), between phraseological units (to win - to lose).
There are also different root and same root antonyms: poor - rich, fly - fly.
A polysemantic word with different meanings can have different antonyms. So, the antonym of the word easy meaning “insignificant in weight” is an adjective heavy, and in the meaning of “easy to learn” – difficult.

The main stylistic function of antonyms is to be a lexical means of opposition, a contrasting image of natural and social phenomena, character traits, etc. Contrast as a stylistic device is widely used in colloquial and everyday phraseological units, proverbs and sayings. The semantic capacity and imagery of folk sayings is often created by antonyms. For example: neither alive nor dead, neither back nor forth, neither hot nor cold; Learning is light and ignorance is darkness; what you came with is what you left with.

Winged expressions of classics of world and Russian literature are also often based on antonymy: He who does not know foreign languages ​​has no idea about his own(J.-W. Goethe); There is nothing stupider than the desire to always be smarter than everyone else(F. La Rochefoucauld); There are no bad roles for good actors(F. Schiller); The powerful are always to blame for the powerless(I. Krylov); The houses are new, but the prejudices are old
(A. Griboyedov); And we hate and we love by chance(M. Lermontov).
Antonyms are often used by writers in the titles of works: “War and Peace” by L. Tolstoy, “Fat and Thin” by A. Chekhov, “Days and Nights”, “The Living and the Dead” by K. Simonov, “What is Good and What is Bad” V. Mayakovsky, etc.

The stylistic functions of antonyms are varied. In one case, they constructively organize the text, in another, they contrast the characters of the heroes of the works, in the third, they act in a clarifying function. For example, antonyms outside - inside, right - left, first - then serve to express spatial or temporal relationships in the text.

This is how N. Gogol describes the hotel where Chichikov stayed: “The external façade of the hotel corresponded to its interior; it was very long, two stories high; lower it was not plastered and remained in dark red bricks, even darker from the wild weather changes and dirty in themselves; upper was painted with eternal yellow paint...” (“Dead Souls”).

Antonyms with a temporal meaning show the sequence of events. For example, I. Turgenev in the story “Mumu” ​​writes about Gerasim: “He entered his closet, laid the rescued puppy on the bed, covered him with his heavy coat, and ran away first to the stable for straw, Then to the kitchen for a cup of milk.” Antonyms with a temporary meaning can also be used to reveal the inner world of heroes. Let us at least recall this description of the lady from the same story: “...she rarely went out and lived out the last years of her stingy and bored old age in solitude. Day her, joyless and stormy, has long passed; but her evening was blacker nights».

In A. Tvardovsky’s poem “Vasily Terkin”, antonyms with the meaning of location emphasize the scale of the battle scenes:

Front left, front right,
And in the February blizzard haze
A terrible battle is going on, bloody,
Mortal combat is not for glory -
For the sake of life on earth.

Revealing the characters of his heroes, the author uses antonyms that express the qualitative opposition of concepts (evaluative nouns, qualitative adjectives, etc.: enemy - friend, poor - rich, thin - fat, stupid - smart and so on.).
A. Pushkin’s poem “You and I” is very indicative in this regard:

You are rich, I am very poor;
You are a prose writer, I am a poet;
You are blushing like poppies,
I am like death, skinny and pale.

In the function of clarification, antonyms appear in the following excerpt from N. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”: “Another kind of men were thick or people like Chichikov, that is, not so much thick, however, not thin...”
The types of exercises in the use of antonyms are determined by the stage of training and the preparedness of the group. In the initial period of learning, when vocabulary is being accumulated, students train mainly in selecting antonyms and composing sentences with them. Antonyms of neutral vocabulary are mainly fixed (here - there, answer - ask, bad - good, first - then). Students are offered exercises with individual words, phrases, sentences and connected texts.
Exercises with individual words are needed to comprehend new vocabulary, understand the grammatical features of antonym words and how to form them. By doing exercises with individual words, students learn that antonymous pairs form only words belonging to one part of speech. In some cases they have different roots (good bad), in others opposite meaning transmitted using a prefix (arrive – leave).

Exercises at the level of phrases are no less important. A word taken out of context carries vague information and is often ambiguous. The meaning of a word finds its specific implementation in a very specific context, where some aspects of the semantics of the word are neutralized and, conversely, others are actualized. Depending on the specific, contextual meaning of a word, it will have different antonyms (cf.: old story - new story And old garden – young garden). At an advanced stage of learning, when a sufficient vocabulary has already been accumulated, students become familiar with the expressive function of antonyms. First of all, analytical exercises are performed to show students how brightness and clarity of statements are achieved with the help of antonyms.

EXERCISES

Here are some types of exercises for learning antonyms.

1. Choose antonyms for these nouns. Make up word combinations with antonymous pairs.

East, spring, winter, majority, heat, end, love, practice, rear.

2. Replace the highlighted words with opposite meanings.

Close relative, polite appeal, clean hands, bitter berry, sick child , true solution, curve line, interesting play, summer holidays.

3. Replace the highlighted words with antonyms. Make up three sentences using the given phrases.

Lung exercise, easy work; small rain, small river ; old costume, old tree; strong health, strong tea; funny mood, funny Human; rough appeal, rough Job; soft pencil, soft hair, soft bread; short act , short house; complete bucket, full woman; rare forest, rare meetings.

Keys: difficult, heavy; large, deep; new, young; weak, liquid; sad, gloomy; polite, subtle; hard, hard, callous; noble, tall; empty, thin; thick, frequent.

“War and Peace”, “Thick and Thin”, “Wolves and Sheep”, “Fathers and Sons”, “The Living and the Dead”, “What is Good and What is Bad”.

5. Select antonymic phrases for these phraseological units.

Sample: carelessly - rolling up your sleeves.

1. Important bird. 2. Brew the porridge. 3. (Live) like a cat and a dog. 4. Tuck your tail between your legs. 5. From a different dough (made). 6. The cat cried.

Keys: 1. Small fry. 2. Clear up the mess. 3. (Live) soul to soul. 4. Turn up your nose. 5. From the same dough (made). 6. There are a dime a dozen, more than enough.

6. Find antonyms in proverbs and sayings.

1. Morning is wiser than evening. 2. They meet you by their clothes and see them off by their intelligence. 3. Quiet during the day, wild at night. 4. Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today. 5. Prepare a sleigh in the summer and a cart in the winter. 6. If you love to take, you also love to give. 7. The native side is the mother, the alien side is the stepmother. 8. Without tasting the bitter, you won’t know the sweet. 9. You won’t know in advance where you will find it and where you will lose it. 10. One color in winter and summer.

7. Find antonyms in popular words. Please note that the expressiveness of a statement is largely determined by the presence of antonym words in it.

1. Life without benefit is untimely death (I. - W. Goethe). 2. He who does not know foreign languages ​​has no idea about his own. 3. A cowardly friend is worse than an enemy, because you fear an enemy, but rely on a friend (L. Tolstoy). 4. If you make new friends, don’t forget about the old ones. (Erasmus of Rotterdam). 5. He who does not go forward goes back: there is no standing position (V. Belinsky). 6. Peace is the virtue of civilization, war is its crime (V. Hugo).
7. Too much wine - not enough brains (Menander). 8. A person is rich or poor not by his property, but by his inner content (Beecher). 9. The powerful are always to blame for the powerless. (I. Krylov). 10. Eagles can descend lower than chickens, but chickens can never reach the clouds.
(I. Krylov).

8. Find antonyms in quotes from the works of A. Pushkin. Name the works from which they are taken.

1. There the lamp burns day and night / Before the face of the Most Holy Virgin. 2. I hate you, / I despise you; / I love another, / I die loving. 3. And the fatal battlefield / Thunders and burns here and there. 4. In his tent he entertains / His leaders, the leaders of strangers. 5. She seemed like a stranger in her own family. 6. I was torn and cried at first, / I almost divorced my husband, / Then I took up housekeeping. 7. Flighty youth, who regrets nothing, wonders... / Old age wonders through glasses / At its gravestone. 8. Her doubts confuse her: / “Shall I go forward, shall I go back?.. / He is not here. They don’t know me...” 9. Boldly healthy, sick / To the princess with a weak hand / He writes a passionate message. 10. Everything gave rise to disputes between them / And attracted them to reflection: / Treaties of past tribes, / The fruits of science, good and evil...

(1. “Bakhchisarai Fountain”. 2. “Gypsies”. 3, 4. “Poltava”. 5–9. “Eugene Onegin”.)

9. Find antonyms in quotes from the works of N. Gogol.

1. Young people, listen to the old ones in everything! (“Taras Bulba”). 2. The servants ran back and forth in a hurry (“Viy”).
3. The wonderful city of Mirgorod! What kind of buildings there are not in it! And under thatch, and under the roof, even under a wooden roof; to the right is the street, to the left is the street, everywhere there is a beautiful fence... (“The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich”). 4. But here’s what’s strange: that Anton Prokofievich is in the habit of wearing a cloth dress in the summer, and a nankee dress in the winter (“The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich”). 5. A string of ladies, talkative and silent, thin and fat, stretched forward, and the long table was filled with all the flowers (“The Story of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich”). 6 But Ivan Yakovlevich was neither alive nor dead (“Nose”). 7. “My respect,” said the gray-haired official, raising his eyes for a moment and lowering them again to the laid out piles of money (“Nose”). 8. Kovalev did not even notice his face and, in deep insensibility, saw only the sleeves of a white shirt as clean as snow (“Nose”) peeking out from the sleeves of his black tailcoat. 9. The police made an order to catch the dead man at any cost, alive or dead, and punish him, as an example to others, and they almost didn’t even have time (“Overcoat”).

10. Find antonyms in quotes from poems by M. Tsvetaeva.

1. The memory puts too much pressure on my shoulders, / I will cry for earthly things in heaven, / I will not hide old words at our new meeting. 2. Neither here nor there - there is no need for a meeting anywhere, / And it is not for meetings that we will wake up in paradise! 3. The ship must not sail forever / And the nightingale must not sing. / How many times have I wanted to live / And how many times have I wanted to die. 4. There are roads everywhere; / Through the forest, through the desert, / At early and late hours. 5. O weeping muse, most beautiful of muses! / O you, crazy fiend of the white night! / You send a black blizzard to Rus', / And your screams pierce us like arrows. 6. Both right and left hand– / Your soul is close to my soul. 7. Let the young not remember / About bent old age. / Let the old ones not remember / About their blissful youth. 8. If only you knew, / Near and far, / How I feel sorry for the head / My own... 9. Tears: no need for salt! / Stock up for years! / Three hundred years of bondage, / Twenty years of freedom. 10. They took the sugar and took the clover, / They took the West and took the North, / They took the beehive and took the haystack, / They took the South and the East from us.

11. Find antonyms in quotes from works of fiction. What is the function of these antonyms?

1. We didn’t sleep. Ivan Ivanovich, a tall, thin old man with a long mustache, sat outside at the entrance and smoked a pipe; the moon illuminated him. Burkin was lying inside on the hay, and he could not be seen in the darkness... It was already midnight. To the right the whole village was visible, the long street stretched far, about five miles. Everything was immersed in a quiet, deep sleep; no movement, no sound, I can’t even believe that nature can be so quiet... To the left, from the edge of the village, a field began; it was visible far away, to the horizon, and in the entire width of this field, flooded with moonlight, there was also no movement, no sound (A. Chekhov. Man in a case). 2. Crossing, crossing... / Darkness, cold, night like a year. / But the right bank clung to it, / The first platoon remained there. / And the guys are silent about him / In the military family circle, / As if they were to blame for something, / Those on the left bank ( A. Tvardovsky. Vasily Terkin). 3. Ivan rushed to the right, and the regent also to the right! Ivan - to the left, and that bastard there too ( M. Bulgakov. Master and Margarita). 4. The house was covered with the hat of a white general, and on the lower floor the engineer and coward, bourgeois and unsympathetic, Vasily Ivanovich Lisovich, lit up with weak yellow lights, and on the upper floor the Turbine windows lit up strongly and cheerfully ( M. Bulgakov. White Guard). 5. On the table there are cups with delicate flowers on the outside and gold on the inside, special, in the form of figured columns ( M. Bulgakov. White Guard).

12. Find antonyms in the quotes. What is their function?

1. Window. Table. Rugs. / In the window there is a view of the river... / My drafts are black. / The cleaners are clean. / Hour after hour, the hour goes away. / Light and shadow flicker. / A star above the river means night. / And the sun means day (N. Rubtsov). 2. There is no peace either day or night ( M. Bulgakov. White Guard). 3. From morning to evening I will think about everything ( M. Saltykov-Shchedrin. Little nothings of life). 4. This desired hour will strike, and light will appear, which darkness will not defeat ( M. Saltykov-Shchedrin. Fairy tales). 5. First he fed Mumu some bread, caressed her, put her to bed, then he began to think, and spent the whole night thinking about how best to hide her ( I. Turgenev. Mu Mu).

13. Find antonyms in the quotes. What is their function?

1. Ivan Ivanovich’s head looks like a radish with its tail down; Ivan Nikiforovich's head - on a radish, tail up (N. Gogol. The story of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich ) . 2. The second - a broad-shouldered, reddish, curly-haired young man in a checkered cap twisted at the back of his head - was wearing a cowboy shirt, chewy white trousers and black slippers ( M. Bulgakov. Master and Margarita). 3. The cat began to shuffle with its hind paw, while at the same time making some gestures characteristic of doormen opening the door ( M. Bulgakov. Master and Margarita). 4. Sonya smiled grandly, but apparently was tormented by jealousy: she either turned pale or blushed and listened with all her might to what Nikolai and Julie were saying to each other ( L. Tolstoy. War and Peace). 5. But today’s Ivan was already significantly different from the Ivan of yesterday, and the first path seemed dubious to him: what good, they will take root in the idea that he is a violent madman ( M. Bulgakov. Master and Margarita).

14. Remember idioms about speech.

1. A long rope is good, but a short speech. 2. Whoever lied yesterday will not be believed tomorrow. 3. A bitter truth is better than a sweet lie. 4. Unscrupulous speakers try to make the bad look good. (Plato). 5. If you can't talk, learn to listen. (Pomponius). 6. Those who are accustomed to being insincere with others eventually cease to be sincere with themselves. (F. La Rochefoucauld). 7. The most dangerous lie is a slightly twisted truth. (Lichtenberg). 8. In general, people who know little talk a lot, and those who know a lot talk little (J.-J. Rousseau).

15. With the help of what antonyms is the antithesis expressed in M. Tsvetaeva’s poem?

The rich man fell in love with the poor woman,
A scientist fell in love with a stupid woman,
I fell in love with ruddy - pale,
I fell in love with a good one - a harmful one;
Golden - copper half...

16. Give a contrasting description of two people using these antonymous pairs.

Blonde - brunette, tall - short, silent - talkative, diligent - lazy, polite - rude, loud - quiet, younger - older, reluctantly - willingly, mama's boy, greenhouse plant - go (through) fire, water and copper pipes.