The properties of the words as the basic units of the language

23. Antonyms and Classification Of Antonyms
Some main types of classification of antonyms in the English language are:

Auto-antonym

In auto antonym, the word has one opposite meaning, including two different meanings for that word. “Contronym” and “Janus word” are a few other names that are given to auto-antonyms. A few examples of auto-antonyms are: consult, dust, bound, and fast.

Complementary Antonyms

The words that have direct absolute opposites is known as complementary antonyms. The words are related to one another. No other term is required for these words to exist. A word from one another exists independently as a result. It is also known as contradictory antonyms or direct antonyms. “Inhale and exhale” and “night and day” are some examples of complementary antonyms.

Converse Antonyms

When words that cannot exist without one another as they are closely related are called converse antonyms. As they have a co-relation, one single opposite won’t make any sense. “Near” and “far” are words that depend on each other as something can be far away when measured with an object that is nearby. “Near and “far” are therefore converse antonyms. They are also known as relational antonyms.

Graded
A word like “happy”, has synonyms such as pleased, gratified, overjoyed and content. As they have a relational connection between them, each of them has a different definition. A similar meaning of the words that show variations and grades between them is known as graded.

Auto-antonyms
The word cleave has two different meanings: “to blind with each other” and “to tear apart”. From this example, we could understand what an auto-antonym is. One word that is reverse of one another has multiple meanings. A few other terms for auto antonyms are contronym and antagonym. When the phenomenon of words with multiple meanings that are reverse of one another is done, it is called enantiosemy. For polysemic terms, enantiosemic is essential.

Enantionymy, antilogy and autantongym are also terms related to enantiosemy. Differences in varieties of English result in some other auto-antonyms. Rather than having alternative meanings in different contexts, some words have the same context. They have opposing meanings or simultaneous opposing to such words. As they share the theme of consisting of opposing words and their meaning, they still don’t classify as auto-antonyms. Latin, Greek and a few other languages contain auto-antonyms.