A Corpus-based Comparative Study On English And Chinese Adjectival Opposites

Oppositeness is a fundamental and omnipresent relationship in our world. In terms of grammar, oppositeness is one of the most complicated paradigmatic relationships, which has been much elaborated and explored by many linguists. And adjectives are one of the major word classes in languages, especially in English. Yet specific studies of adjectival opposites are not many which leads to the great significance of studies and research of them.According to traditional definition, the adjectival opposites can be divided into two types: complimentaries and antonyms. This criterion of classification is largely based on the gradability of adjectives but is not without problems. And now more and more challenges have popped up.The author of this thesis argues that opposites are first of all opposite pairs, which distinguish themselves from other adjectives not only by the static lexical relationship between their two terms, but also by their dynamic but tangible grammatical functions in discourse. That is, the textual functions adjectival opposites have performed also contribute to their identity. Adjectival opposites are"what they do"in texts rather than merely two static and isolated words. However, does the gradability criterion remain crucial in respect of the textual functions of adjectival opposites? A test on the basis of concordances retrieved from Brown Corpus was made on English to check whether or not gradability is of that critical distinguishing power in textual environments. Statistics denied the critical role of gradability. To make a clearer recognition of adjectival opposites, the author carried on a similar test with Chinese adjectives. The test was based on lines concordanced in Web-based CCL corpus, the result shows that the gradable and non-gradable adjectival opposites differ only in two minor textual functions. In the tests, fresh types of functions of English and Chinese adjectival opposites are identified. And the importance of co-occurring frequency is justified and emphasized.Therefore, meanwhile we challenge the value of gradability criterion, a fresh...