Antonymet

Antonymet is a term used in linguistics and computational semantics to describe a structured representation of semantic oppositions among words. More specifically, it denotes a network or graph that encodes antonymy relations between lexemes, often across languages, to support analysis of meaning contrasts and lexical polarity.

Etymology: The name combines anti- (opposite) with net (from network), reflecting its function as an interconnected map of opposites.

Construction and scope: An antonymet can be assembled from bilingual dictionaries, thesauri, and large corpora. Researchers may integrate manual curation with automated detection, using cues such as negation, antonym collocations, and distributional contrasts. It accommodates sense distinctions and gradience; a single word may have multiple antonyms depending on sense.

Structure and data: Nodes represent lemmas with sense annotations, while edges are labeled as antonym or inverse-antonym. Additional attributes include language, domain, and strength of opposition. Weighted edges can reflect polarity strength, frequency of co-occurrence, or contextual salience. The framework supports cross-lingual links, enabling comparative studies of how languages mark opposition.

Applications: Antonymets are used in lexicography and natural language processing, including sentiment analysis, machine translation, paraphrase detection, and query expansion. They also serve as resources for studying semantic change, lexical development, and cross-cultural differences in affective meaning.

Limitations: Antonymy is context-dependent and not strictly binary. Some languages exhibit gradable, relational, or directional antonyms that resist simple labeling. Cross-lingual mapping is complex due to polysemy and language-specific lexicalization.

See also: antonymy, semantic network, lexical resources, knowledge graphs. Example: an emblematic antonymet might connect hot and cold, light and dark, with sense-specific nodes to reflect polysemy.