Glossary:Transitional Antonymy

Transitional Antonymy

Pronounciation

/trænˈzɪʃ(ə)nəl ˈæntənɪmi/

General definition

Transitional Antonymy is used to reinforce a shift or change from doing/being/having one thing to doing/being/having the opposite. As it is not a very common used type of antonymy, Transitional Antonymy is part of the so-called minor classes.

General pattern

X turns to Y

Example

Even hard currency has turned soft.

References

• Jones, Stephen; Murphy, M. Lynne (2005). Using corpora to investigate antonym acquisition. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 10:3. John Benjamin Publishing Company.
• Murphy, M. Lynne; Jones, Stephen (2008 November). Antonyms in children's and child-directed speech. First language 28 (4[87]).