LINGUIST List 6.234

Fri 17 Feb 1995

Disc: Words that are their own opposites

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. , Re: 6.191 Words that are their own opposites
2. Alex Eulenberg, Typo in latest auto-antonym post! Please correct!
3. ANNA MORPURGO DAVIES, RE: 6.209 Words that are their own opposites, cont.
4. "Jules Levin", RE: 6.191 Words that are their own opposites

Message 1: Re: 6.191 Words that are their own opposites

I have followed the discussion about "auto-antonyms" with some interest,
and I was wondering what people know about *how* these words acquire
their opposite meanings (as opposed to, say, a related one). Does it
happen by pure chance or could it be explained in terms of cognitive
mapping? Anyone?
Regards,
Anders

Anders Joensson
Macalester College
E-mail: ljonssonmacalstr.edu

In Gamon's section

 "if one is free to do something, then one is not bound to do it." should
read "...then one is not bound to not do it"

Message 3: RE: 6.209 Words that are their own opposites, cont.

For enantionsemy (words that are their own opposite) I do not
think that anyone has quoted the article by Giulio Lepschy
which traces the history of this concept:
Giulio C. Lepschy, Freud, Abel e gli opposti, in F. Fornari ed.,
La comunicazione spiritosa. Il motto di di spirito da Freud a
oggi, Firenze, Sansoni 1982, 39-68; reprinted in Giulio C. Lepschy,
Sulla linguistica moderna, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1989, 349-378.
Cfr. anche G.C.Lepschy, Enantiosemy and irony in Italian lexis,
in The Italianist, 1 (1981), 82-88. Anna Morpurgo Davies

Message 4: RE: 6.191 Words that are their own opposites

In my message of 9 Feb I accidently left out the word that has come to mean
both "clarify" and "cast a shadow over". It is "ADUMBRATE", of course.
--Sorry, JL

)Date: Thu, 9 Feb 95 20:47:30 PDT
)From: "Jules Levin" (jflevinucrac1.ucr.edu)
)Subject: RE: 6.108 Sum: Words that are their own opposites
)
)Content-Length: 770
)
)Sorry I haven't commented earlier, but I have been collecting examples of
)these words for several years without having a name for them.
)I have one class or type with at least 3 members: Words that mean both
)movement and inability to move. Examples: fast, bolt, bound
)The last word yielded one of the all-time great movie song lyric puns, from
)the Title song of "Road to Morroco": "Like Webster's Dictionary, we're
)Morroco-bound..."!
)I also believe the following word has not been mentioned: It now seems to
)mean both to illuminate, clarify, and also to cast a shadow over...
)
)Anyway, when I find my list, I'll have more.
)
)As for other languages, Russian predat' means both to devote and to betray.
)
) --Jules Levin
)
)University of California
)Riverside, CA 92521
)

---
University of California
Riverside, CA 92521