Positivity

In English, antonyms bearing positive associations are given priority over those bearing negative associations (Jones 2002:124). In Mandarin Chinese, the notion of positivity is also influential in antonym sequences. For example, the word dui, which is more positive than its antonymous partner cuo, is found to precede cuo in 96.7% of the database sentences featuring this pair. The word shi, like its modern counterpart dui, is also found to precede the negative member fei in 95.3% of the database sentences featuring this pair. Similarly, the word ai is considered more positive than hen, and ai is found to precede hen in 86.7% of the database sentences featuring this pair.

The pair yi/nan is also influenced by positivity. The word nan bears negative

associations in that what is difficult is usually considered time-consuming and obstructive. It is shown in Table 14 that yi precedes nan in 86.7% of the database sentences featuring this pair. However, the same tendency is not observed in the disyllabic counterpart kunnan/rongyi. As shown in Table 14, kunnan precedes rongyi in 58.4% of the database sentences featuring this pair. A possible explanation for this pattern is that modern disyllabic antonyms may be more flexible with respect to occurrence sequencing.¹⁶

Another pair influenced by positivity is chengren/fouren (Jones 2002:125). The word chengren precedes its negative partner fouren in 68.7% of the database sentences featuring this pair.

The pair zhengque/cuowu patterns with its monosyllabic counterpart dui/cuo, with the positive antonym zhengque preceding the negative antonym cuowu in 60.0%

of the database sentences featuring this pair. However, this tendency is not as strong as in the pair dui/cuo. Like the modern disyllabic antonymous pair kunnan/rongyi, the antonyms zhengque and cuowu also show more flexibility in their sequence.

The word ying precedes its antonymous partner shu more often (54.7%) than the reverse (45.3%). However, the close figures can hardly confirm a preference either way.

The notion of positivity may be perceived in metaphorical terms. For instance, spatial terms such as qianjin, jin, and qian may be regarded as metaphorically positive, for jin and qian are associated with success and progress. The corpus data confirm this speculation. It is shown in Table 14 that qianjin precedes houtui, jin precedes tui, jin precedes chu, and qian precedes hou in 92.5%, 91.3%, 86.0%, and 70.0% of the database sentences respectively.

16 For why modern disyllabic antonyms may be more flexible with respect to occurrence sequencing, see Section 6.3.

The notion of positivity may be perceived in terms of socio-cultural backgrounds.

There exists a striking preference in English that male precedes female in 82.8% of the database sentences featuring this pair (Jones 2002:127). In Mandarin Chinese, the same tendency is also observed. As shown in Table 14, nan precedes nu, nansheng precedes nusheng, nanren precedes nuren, nanzi precedes nuzi, and nanxing precedes nuxing in 92.0%, 82.0%, 72.7%, 70.7%, and 68.0% of the database sentences respectively. Jones (2002:127) recognizes gender as one of the independent factors that affect antonym sequences. In fact, the gender effect in antonym sequencing may be regarded as reflecting social prejudices against women. Traditionally speaking, men are associated with positive characteristics, such as ability and independence, while women are associated with negative characteristics, such as inability and dependence (Litoselliti 2006). Therefore, the notion of positivity－in socio-cultural terms－can explain the sequencing pattern in antonyms of gender distinction.

As shown in Table 14, fangdong precedes fangke, fumu precedes haizi, and laoshi precedes xuesheng in 74.6%, 65.3%, and 64.7% of the database sentences featuring these pairs. In terms of socio-cultural backgrounds, the above patterns can also be accounted for by the notion of positivity. There exists a power relationship between landlords and tenants, between parents and children, and between teachers and students, for landlords rent out houses to tenants, parents raise children, and teachers educate students. The words fangdong, fumu, and laoshi, which are associated with social power, are considered more positive than their antonymous counterparts and thus given priority.

A relevant question arises immediately. That is, why are antonyms with positive associations given priority over those with negative associations? A possible explanation is that concepts bearing positive associations are usually psychologically preferred, so these concepts may be more readily accessible to speakers or writers

than those bearing negative associations. In other words, antonyms given priority are cognitively favored. Since some concepts are universally positive and preferred, the pairs shi/fei, dui/cuo, zhengque/cuowu, ai/hen, yi/nan, chengren/fouren, and ying/shu are comparable with their English equivalents right/wrong, love/hate, easy/difficult, confirm/deny, and win/lose in terms of their canonical sequences (Jones 2002).

The only discrepancy between Mandarin Chinese and English observed in this study is that while lao precedes shao in 98.7% of the Chinese database sentences featuring this pair, young precedes old in 71.0% of the English database sentences featuring this pair (Jones 2002:122). The concept of youth is considered positive in the Western culture because it is associated with energy, strength and vitality, so it is natural that young precedes old far more frequently in English than the reverse. On the other hand, the concept of oldness is considered positive in the Chinese culture because it is associated with maturity, caution and responsibility, so it is not surprising that lao precedes shao far more frequently in Mandarin Chinese than the reverse. In this instance, the notion of positivity is still relevant, but it is defined in cultural terms.

Finally, there seems to exist a counterexample, i.e., jia/zhen. The word zhen is more positive than its antonymous partner jia, but it is preceded by jia in 74.0% of the database sentences featuring this pair. In fact, almost all the sentences with jia preceding zhen are assigned to Ancillary Antonymy, featuring the lexico-syntactic frame jia…zhen… ‘fake…real…’. Here is an example:

(146) 企圖製造「假車禍、真搶劫」案件

Qitu zhizao ‘jia chehuo, zhen qiangjie’ anjian attempt produce ‘fake accident, real robbery’ case

‘attempt to produce “fake accident, real robbery” cases’

The lexico-syntactic frame jia…zhen… is frequently used in journalism to uncover crimes and conspiracies, surprising the reader or the audience. This lexico-syntactic frame might be considered specific to journalistic texts. For the pair jia/zhen, the notion of positivity is overridden by genre-specific concerns. With the sentences featuring the lexico-syntactic frame jia…zhen… left aside, almost all the other sentences featuring the pair zhen/jia have the negative word jia following its positive counterpart zhen, as shown in the following sentence:

(147) 網上的生意人有真有假，

Wang shang de shengyiren you zhen you jia, Internet on DE businessman have real have fake

‘Some businessmen on the Internet are honest, while others are not.’

In (147), zhen and jia are coordinated in a four-character lexico-syntactic frame, with the positive antonym preceding the negative one. The notion of positivity still works in (147).