Meaning of contronymy | Babel Free

Definitions

The quality of being a contranym or including contranyms.

uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“Near-synonym: enantiosemy”

“Contronymy, a phenomenon which has received much attention in recent years, has often been described as sense⟳ opposition at the micro-level.”

“Today the same word can mean⟳ 'wholly', 'to a considerable extent' ('Quite the little madam, aren't we?') or '(only) to some extent', 'partially' or 'somewhat' ('feeling quite tired'), though theoretical linguists explain⟳ this slightly differently: 'At the micro-level the lexical unit represents a case for contronymy of antonymy type⟳ if it can be subjected to gradation and if it comprises at least two senses which are contradictory within one aspect.'”

“Kronasser (1952) and Meid (1979) argue⟳ that language change⟳ results in the occurrence of contronymy in natural language.”

CEFR level