Transitional Antonymy involves a transition from one antonymous concept to another. A skewed distributional pattern emerges: 34.9% of the database sentences falling into this category feature yi/nan ‘easy/difficult’, and 37.6% of them feature maifang/maifang ‘seller/buyer’. The above two pairs have their typical lexico-syntactic frames when they function in a transitional manner.
When the pair yi/nan is used to signal a transition, the most common lexico-syntactic frame is xian…hou… ‘first…then…’ (62 out of 80, 77.5%). The following is an example:
(105) 改革分階段進行，先易後難，
Gaige fen jieduan jinxing, xian yi hou nan,
reformation divide phase carry out, first easy then difficult
‘The reformation is carried out phase by phase, starting with what is easy and moving on to what is difficult.’
When the monosyllabic antonymous pair yi/nan fills in the frame xian…hou…, a four-character expression is yielded. As mentioned in Chapter 4, four-character
phrases abound in Mandarin Chinese, so the phrases xian yi hou nan and xian nan hou yi gain popularity.
In addition, the lexico-syntactic frame cong/you…dao… ‘from…to…’ (15 out of 80, 18.8%) is sometimes used when the pair yi/nan occurs in a transitional context:
(106) 命題內容從難到易，
Mingti neirong cong nan dao yi, make test content from difficult to easy
‘The contents of the test are difficult at the beginning and then getting easier,’
(107) 談判的進行，則應該由易到難，
Tanpan de jinxing, ze yinggai you yi dao nan,
negotiation DE proceed, then should from easy to difficult
‘The negotiation should move from what is easy on to what is difficult.’
In the above two sentences, the metaphor of journey cong/you…dao… is employed to describe transitions (Jones 2002:87).
As for the pair maifang/maifang, the most frequent lexico-syntactic frame is (cong/you)…zhuan(bian) wei/zhuan hui/zhuan xiang… ‘(from)…turn into…’ (41 out of 86, 47.7%):
(108) 絕大多數工業產品由賣方市場轉變為買方市場，
Jue daduoshu gongye chanpin you maifang shichang zhuanbian wei maifang shichang,
extremely most industry product from seller market change be buyer market
‘For most industrial products, the seller’s market has turned into the buyer’s market.’
(109) 實際上是將鋼鐵市場從買方市場轉向賣方市場，
Shijishang shi jiang gangtie shichang cong maifang shichang zhuanxiang maifang shichang,
actually be JIANG steel iron market from buyer market change to seller market
‘In fact, the iron and steel industry is changed from a buyer’s market to a seller’s market.’
In the above two examples, the verb zhuan ‘to turn’ is used to express a transition. In (108), zhuan combines with bian ‘change’ to form a compound verb zhuanbian ‘to turn into’. In (109), the preposition xiang ‘to’ is attached to zhuan to introduce the direction of the transition.
In addition, the pair maifang/maifang is sometimes embedded in the lexico-syntactic frame (cong/you)…xiang/dao…(de) zhuanbian/bianhua
‘(from)…to…(DE) change’ (22 out of 86, 25.6%) to express transitions, as exemplified in the following:
(110) 實現了煤炭由賣方市場向買方市場的轉變，
Shixian le meitan you maifang shichang xiang maifang shichang de zhuanbian,
realize ASPECT coal from seller market to buyer market DE change
‘For coal, the change from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market has been realized.’
(111) 隨著鐵路由賣方市場向買方市場的變化，
Suizhe tielu you maifang shichang xiang maifang shichang de bianhua, as railway from seller market to buyer market DE change
‘For the railway, with the change from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market.’
In these two examples, zhuanbian ‘change’ and bianhua ‘change’ are used as nouns, denoting transitions in the business domain.
The above lexico-syntactic frames also occur with other pairs when used to denote Transitional Antonymy, as the following examples show:
(112) 鄭秀文倒是覺得很有挑戰性，不但要從年輕演到老，
Zhengxiuwen daoshi juede hen you tiaozhan xing, budan yao cong nianqing yan dao lao,
Zhengxiuwen yet feel very have challenge quality, not only need from young play to old
‘However, Zhengxiuwen finds it challenging; she not only needs to play a role, in which she is gradually getting old,’
(113) 他們面對死刑態度由恨轉為愛，
Tamen miandui sixing taidu you hen zhuan wei ai, they face death panelty attitude from hate to love
‘Their attitude towards the death penalty changes from hate to love.’
In (112), the construction cong…dao…, which is typical of the pair yi/nan, is also compatible with the pair lao/nianqing ‘old/young’. In (113), the construction you…zhuan wei…, which is characteristic of the pair maifang/maifang, is also
available to the pair ai/hen ‘to love/to hate’.
In fact, almost all the other transition-signaling lexico-syntactic frames identified in this study might be regarded as the variants of the lexico-syntactic frames introduced above:
(114) 先在回教法庭否認而後又承認以致被定罪。
Xian zai Huijiao fating fouren er hou you chengren yizhi bei dingzui.
first at Islam court deny but then again admit so by declare guilty
‘(Someone) denied at the Islam court but later admitted so that (he) was declared guilty.’
(115) 他只是把錯誤的生日改回正確的而已。
Ta zhishi ba cuowu de shengri gai hui zhengque de eryi.
he only ba wrong DE birthday change back right DE nothing more
‘He simply changed the incorrect birthday to the correct one, and that’s all.’
In (114), the lexico-syntactic frame xian…er hou you… ‘first…and then…’ is considered a variant of xian…hou…, which is preferred by the pair yi/nan. In (115), gai ‘to change’ in the lexico-syntactic frame ba…gai hui… ‘CO-VERB…change back…’ is synonymous with zhuan ‘to turn’ and bian ‘to change’, which are highly favored by the pair maifang/maifang.