Opposite possess a unique fascination, and exhibit properties which may appear

paradoxical. Take, for instance the simultaneous closeness, distance from one another, of
opposite. The meanings of a pair of opposite are felt intuitively to be maximally
separated. Indeed, there is a widespread idea that the power of uniting or reconciling
opposite is a magical one, an attribute of the Deity, or a property of stage of mine brought
about by profound meditation and so on. The closeness of opposite, in the other hand,
manifests itself, for instance, in the fact that the members of a pair have almost identical
distribution, that is to say, very similar possibilities of normal and abnormal occurrence.
In spite of the robustness of the ordinary speakers intuition concerning opposite, the
overall is not a well-defined one, and its adequate characterization is for easy. One can be
distinguished, however central or prototype instance, judged by informant to be good
example of the category: good: bad, large: small, true: false, top: bottom, etc. And more
or less peripheral example, judged as less good, or about whose status as opposites there
is not a perfect consensus, such as command: obey, mother: father, town: country, etc.
Generally speaking, the lexical derivative of a pair of opposites than themselves
opposite, sometimes with interesting properties in their own right, example lighten and
shorten from long from short. But most often they display no interesting properties that
are not related in and obvious way to those of the best forms. Another class of opposite
about which little systematic can be said are impure opposite, that is to say, those which
encapsulate, or include within their meaning, a more elementary opposition, for instance,
giant: dwarf can be said to encapsulate the opposition between large and small (but this
opposition does not exhaust their meaning) likewise, shout and whisper encapsulate loud
and soft, criticize and praise encapsulate good and bad and stalactite and stalagmite, up
and down.