VI WORDS IN PAIRS UR first task in this volume was the study of words OUR in combination. Our second was the study of individual words in two of their aspects-first, as they are seen in isolation, next as they are seen in verbal families. Now our third task confronts us. It is the study of words as they are associated, not in actual blood kinship, but in meaning. Such an association in meaning may involve only two words (pairs) or larger groups. In this chapter we shall confine ourselves to the study of pairs. In Of the relationship between pairs there are three types. In the first the words are hostile to each other. In the second they may easily be confused with each other. the third they are parallel with each other. We shall examine the three types successively. But we must make an explanation first. Although we shall, in this and the following chapters, have frequent occasion to give the meanings of individual words, we shall give them without regard to dictionary methods. We shall not attempt formal, water-tight, or exhaustive definitions; our purpose is to convey, in the simplest and most human manner possible, brief general explanations of what the words stand for. Opposites Pairs of the first type are made up of words by nature opposite to each other, or else thought of as opposite because they are so often contrasted. Here is a familiar, everyday list: east, west large, small laugh, cry top, bottom sweet, sour meat, drink land, water straight, crooked myself, others major, minor light, darkness friend, enemy temporal, spiritual clean, dirty merry, sad general, particular wealth, poverty soul, body positive, negative None of these words needs explaining. If you think of one of them, you will think of its opposite; at least its opposite will be lurking in the back of your mind. As proof of this fact you have only to glance at the following list, from which the second member of each pair is omitted: |