Antiphony

Definitions

1. Alternate, or responsive singing by a choir split into two parts; a piece sung or chanted in this manner.
   countable, uncountable
2. Alternate, or responsive ideas or opinions; juxtaposition.
   countable, uncountable
3. Synonym of apophony (“contrastive vowel modification”).
   countable, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“Besides that Cardan pleases himself with that Antiphonie in Nature, that as the Ostrich being a Bird, yet never shes in the Aire, so this Bird of Paradise should alwayes be in the Aire, and never rest⟳ upon the Earth.”

“Still another phase of language which interests Professor Orr is that of vowel antiphony in the functional development of language; e.g. the “front-back” vowel sequence (tittle-tattle, et patati et patata, etc.).”

“Roman Jakobson gives evidence to show⟳ how language uses ‘antiphony’ or vowel opposition in pairs of words with opposite meanings: ‘gleam’ and ‘gloom’, ‘here’ and ‘there’, or in French ‘petit’ and ‘grand’.”

“The various types of reduplication […] include⟳ full reduplication (tum-tum), […] vowel antiphony (flip-flop, criss-cross) […]”

CEFR level