Comment on the following groups of words in terms of types of antonyms: contradictory terms, contrary terms, relative terms.
“dead—alive”, “young—old”, “employer—employee”
【正确答案】：Antonyms can be defined as words which are opposite in meaning. They can be classified into three major groups.
Contradictory terms: They are so opposed to each other that they are mutually exclusive and admit no possibility between them, such as"dead-alive".
Contrary terms: Antonyms of this type are best viewed in terms of a scale running between two poles or extremes. Antonyms such as "young old" represent two points at both ends of the pole and can accommodate middle ground belonging neither to one pole nor to the other. We can have middle-aged between the young and the old.
Relative terms: This type consists of relational opposites such as "employer employee". Such pairs of words indicate such a reciprocal social relationship that one of them cannot be used without suggesting the other. If A is an employer of B, then B is an employee, who works for A.
