The Dynamic Cognitive Construal Of Gradable Antonymy

Antonymy has been a topic of interest in linguistics, logic, psychology, and other fields for a long history. As one of the paradigmatic semantic relations, antonymy is narrowed down to the study of antonyms in linguistics. Most linguistic discussions focus on the definition of antonymy, defining features, classification, and some characteristics of opposites use. In the studies of antonymy, modern linguists have treated them for many years from the synchronic perspective, defining antonymy as static and fixed semantic relations. The too strict definition hinders the inclusive study of antonymy which is commonly used in the changing natural language.The thesis holds that senses of words are not only mapped on the words themselves, but are changing in some way. Antonyms can also be studied in a diachronic way taking contexts and communicative factors into consideration. The thesis mainly explains the gradable antonyms by using the dynamic construal approach. Gradable antonyms are grouped into two types:monoscalar antonyms and biscalar antonyms. This classification is followed in this thesis. Monoscalar antonyms, including tall/short, deep/shallow and fast/slow, are studied first for their cognitive salience and construal principle. Based on the dynamic construal approach, we analyze their semantic features and cognitive features, along with the mapping of the cognitive features of this kind of antonyms on language use. The thesis attempts to postulate two principles—"the Principle of Construal" and "the Principle of Salience". The Principle of Construal shows that those stronger or higher than the normal quantity are construed as A and those weaker or lower than the normal quantity are construed as B. The Principle of Salience shows that those stronger or higher than the normal quantity are more salient and those weaker or lower than the normal quantity are less salient. It follows that the more salient is more frequently used, and the less salient is less frequently used. Biscalar antonyms include equipollent antonyms and overlapping antonyms. The thesis mainly discusses overlapping antonyms, which are of the highest degree of subjectivity. Subjectivity involves evaluation, either complimentary or derogatory. Relative construal is resorted to account for it.