Exercise

I. The following pairs of words or phrases are similar in meaning. Try to tell the difference between the two words in light of classification of lexical meaning.

II. There are three kinds of antonymy. By writing C, G and R in the blank, indicate whether the pair is complementary, gradable, or reversal opposites.

a) young/old

b) awake/asleep

c) pass/fail

d) husband/wife

e) buy/sell

f) legal/illegal

g) true/false

h) over/under

i) cheap/expensive

j) guilty/innocent

教师解析

I.

The two are different in formality, the latter informal.

The two differ in emotive meaning, the former commendatory, the latter derogatory.

The two differ in collocation.

The two differ in collocation.

The two differ in formality, the latter informal.

The two differ in formality, the former formal.

The two are dialectal synonyms.

The two differ in register.

II.

a) G b) C c)C d) R e) R f)C g) C h) R i) G j) C