Saturday, October 9, 2010

Opposite Terms

Let opposite of term A be Ā. Ie. Ā is most distant term from A in its kind (species?). White and black, good and bad, friend and enemy... Then, on condition there is distribution of terms in some dimension, there is square of opposition of terms:

 A   opposite   Ā
   com     ment
       ple
   com     ment
-Ā subopposite -A



 A |          -A
---|----------------|---
       -Ā           | Ā


It is not Greimas' semiotic square, which deals with oppositions of signs.