Comment on the characteristics of antonyms by illustrating the following pair of sentences.
(1)How tall is his brother?
(2)How short is his brother?
【正确答案】：Antonyms differ in semantic inclusion. Pairs of antonyms are seen as marked and unmarked terms respectively. In many pairs we find that one member is more specific than the other and the meaning of the specific is included in that of the general.
Take tall/short for example. Short is more restricted in use than tall. So far as the meaning is concerned, sentence (1) includes the meaning of sentence (2). The use of tall doesn't exclude the possibility of his brother being very short. But sentence (2) is much more restricted in sense and is considered semantically abnormal unless the speaker is particularly interested in the shortness of his brother or curious enough to find out how short his brother is.
