Week 1/2021
A fit cat is an antonym for a fat cat. Kind of.
Date: 7 Jan 2021
Motion: THW learn two words simultaneously, one and its antonym, in a foreign language
Role: MP (gov.)
I have consciously been learning languages during this century and while doing so I have, of course, come up with some insights on how the linguistic process works its way in the mind. Thefore, I am proposing here a novel thing familiar from the world of retail: Learn two words at the same time! Buy two items for the price of one!
Learning words in tandem has its benefits. The lazy attitude about it is to complain about the “load” of work. Who in his right mind would want to bother with two, when there is enough hassle learning just one, for Pete’s sake? It is like getting twins, when the only thing a wife or woman wanted was just one desired, expected and accepted child. For all that, learning two words at a time has its fundamental allure, which I am going to present here next.
Antonym Pairs Promote Comparison and Comparison Is the Root of Analysis
The device On the One Hand vs. On the Other Hand is underused in my 1st language; but it’s fairly common in English, as English is an analytical language and known for using that in philosophy, whether Continental or Empirical. It is a good sign if a person is in the habit of making comparisons between different things or comparing the conflicting, contradictory, controversial qualities present in just one person or thing. It is a sign of a thinking person, who would not be afraid before the complexity of life, at least not on the theoretical level, even if that did not extend to practical life.
One Does Not Have to Limit Oneself to Formal Words
The creeping impression that may come to mind is that there are merely fancy, fine, formal word pairs to learn, such as altitude and depth, or rustic and urban or galactic and planetary. This is not true. Antonym pairs can also be found elsewhere, in bustling city life, colourful subcultures and slang. Usually when there is a word, it also has some kind of a counterpart. If a single word has multiple potential antonymical counterparts, the one that sees the most use or is the most interesting to a subset of people should preferably be chosen.
One or the Other Is Often a Sentence-Ender or Opener
I have noticed that especially formal nouns that are abstract and impart a quality, strength or virtue are often chosen as the first word in a sentence. These are words such as beauty, poverty or velocity. The problem arises, early on, if a speaker does not know the first-word-to-be of a sentence. It results in evasion, stammering and uttering like… or you know even before the oration has begun. In other words, such a word is often the subject of a sentence. Very often the word or its antonym may also be the last word of a sentence. Such a word is sometimes called a predicative, at least in some languages. It is equally embarrassing if the speaker has to search for the last word before (s)he can finish the sentence, or utter a barrage of likes… or you knows… before that.
If I was a teacher of foreign language(s), I would impose a policy where I would routinely write the antonym for a word, too, if I wrote a word with a piece of chalk on the blackboard. And I would sometimes insist on finding out about it from my students or in a dictionary if none of us knew the correct antonym. This kind of a “blanket method” of learning language might produce results 5 – 25 % faster than the snail-paced trudge that language classes usually are. People may think “it’s boring“, but it’s not any more boring than the mechanics of an engine is, if one invests emotion in it.
People have a tendency to make comparisons while they reason and speak, and they do that intuitively, without deciding to do so. Therefore, it is nigh on necessary to know a lot of words from at least two “ends” of the discourse, the “one” end and the “other” end, in a manner of speaking. Knowing two opposing words also helps one in situations where only one of them, not both, is needed to complete a sentence, but it happens to be the one that is the less familiar one either to the speaker or speaking generally. Interestingly, antonyms also help straightforward motion in a delivery, not just a ping-pong, see-saw, zig-zag type of meandering motion.
Perustelu(t)/puolustelu(t): Vuoden aluksi puhe, joka on puhdasta semantiikkaa eikä politiikkaa tai sosiaalitieteitä. Antonyymit menevät väittelyn ytimeen sillä tavalla, että yleensä yksi puolista puolustaa yhtä ja toinen toista jostakin vastakohtaisesta parista käsitteellisellä tasolla. Siinä taistelun tajuntaa supistavassa tuoksinassa sitä ei välttämättä tajua kognitiivisella tasolla. Tämä sopisi yhtä hyvin esitettäväksi kenen tahansa antonyymejä puolustavan puolen takaa, ja siksi se tulee nyt esitettäväksi edustajan antina.
Polar Ice Standpoints Society 