A Revisit To Complementarity And Gradability In The Study Of Adjective Opposites

Oppositeness has been a topic of interest in linguistics, logic, psychology, and other fields for a long history. Oppositeness, as one of the paradigmatic semantic relations, is narrowed down to the study of opposites in linguistics. Most linguistic discussions focus on the definition of oppositeness, defining features, classification, and some characteristics of opposites. Despite the vase number of scholarly outputs dedicated to these issues, it appears that, in the classification of adjective opposites, there is a consensus that terms of complementary opposites are not gradable and gradable opposites are not complementary.This dissertation attempts to discuss the complementarity and gradability in adjective opposites from different perspectives. Firstly, the respective discussions on complementarity and gradability are carried out. The result shows that complementarity and gradability are not incompatible, but two properties in different importance in adjective opposites. Complementarity can be applied to all adjective opposites, which supports its obligatory characteristic, and gradability is obtained by all gradable opposites and some of the complementary opposites, which shows its optional function.After the discussion of their respective functions in adjective opposites, the present study continues to discuss the relationship of them and how they function together by a dynamic approach. This cognitive semantic approach was first proposed by Croft & Cruse (2004). They hold that meanings are not fixed or mapped on language expressions, but are construed in different contexts. Therefore, meanings of opposites may be influenced by context, frequency or other variables. By this approach, the obligatory function of complementarity and the optional function of gradability are further enhanced, and how gradability is conventionalized from a pragmatic use to a semantic meaning is discussed. The result shows that gradability of adjective opposites comes into existence by the influence of contexts and some of gradable uses take a long time to conventionalize from pragmatic uses to semantic meanings.With these theoretical and study underpinnings, we conclude two principles. Principle of complementarity: this principle is applied to all adjective opposites, that is to say, complementarity is an obligatory property. Terms of adjective opposites must follow the formula: "P(x)=(?)Q(x) & Q(x)=(?)P(x) ". Principle of gradability: this principle is applied to all gradable adjective opposites and some of the complementary adjective opposites. This property can be discussed by "more or less", that is to say, gradability is an optional property of adjective opposites. The former is the principle of quality and the latter is the principle of quantity.