Du paradigme vers le syntagme — l’antonymie adjectivale : quelques remarques

Abstract

This paper raises and discusses the relation of antonymy in adjectives. Antonymy is considered to play an important role in organizing mental lexicon. This relation defined often in logical terms stands for paradigmatic relation, as presented in WordNet. However, the category of antonymous adjectives can depend on more than just the semantic qualities of a word. It is often highly context dependent. Adjectives have different interpretation depending on the noun they modify — it is no surprising that they produce different antonyms in different contexts. On the basis of few examples of investigations of antonymy, this paper argues that antonymy is not only a paradigmatic but also a syntagmatic relation. The paradigmatic-syntagmatic distinction is not always relevant to all antonymous adjectives.