The Analysis of Grammatical Functions and Semantic Aspects of Antonyms“反而”and“相反”in Chinese

Abstract

The aims of this research are 1) to investigate the grammatical functions and semantic aspects of antonyms “反而”and “相反” in Chinese in example sentences from the database of the Center for Chinese Linguistics PKU ( CCL ) 2022 of Peking University 2) to build a learning and application guidelines for Chinese grammar learners and individual interested in Chinese antonyms in the information realm and also the content realm. This study is qualitative research investigating the grammatical functions and semantic aspects of antonyms“反而” and “相反” in Chinese in example sentences from the database of the Center for Chinese Linguistics PKU (CCL ) 2022 of Peking University. The study discovered that even though“反而”and “相反”convey the similar meaning and usage, in other words, both signify shifted or opposed meaning in a sentence, with a deeper analysis of their grammatical functions,“反而”and“相反”employ completely different grammatical functions. 1)“反而”serves as an adverb positioning itself in front of a verb, an adjective, a Preposition or an adverb to signify a shift in an expected event. 2)“相反”can serve as both a conjunction and an adjective positioning itself in front of or behind various types of words to signify the contrast between two things, both concrete and abstract. Due to this finding, the authors believe that this study result can benefit by not only eliminating the confusion in the usage of “反而”and“相反”, but also act as a guideline for grammatical functions and semantic aspects of other Chinese antonyms. Keywords: Analysist, antonym, Chinese grammar, 反而, 相反