Type brief-Opposites/Antonyms

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opposite_(semantics)

In lexical semantics, oppositesare words that lie in an inherently incompatible binary relationship as in the opposite pairs male : female, long : short, up : down, and precede : follow. The notion of incompatibility here refers to the fact that one word in an opposite pair entails that it is not the other pair member. For example, something that is longentails that it is not short. It is referred to as a 'binary' relationship because there are two members in a set of opposites. The relationship between opposites is known asopposition. A member of a pair of opposites can generally be determined by the questionWhat is the opposite of X ?

The term antonym (and the related antonymy) has also been commonly used as a term that is synonymous withopposite; however, the term also has other more restricted meanings. One usage hasantonym referring to both gradable opposites, such aslong : short, and (non-gradable) complementary opposites, such as male : female, while opposites of the types up : down andprecede : follow are excluded from the definition.

A third usage (particularly that of the influential Lyons 1968, 1977) defines the term antonymas referring to only gradable opposites (the long : short type) while the other types are referred to with different terms. Therefore, as Crystal (2003) warns, the terms antonymy andantonym should be regarded with care. In this article, the usage of Lyons (1963, 1977) and Cruse (1986, 2004) will be followed where antonym is restricted to gradable opposites and opposite is used as the general term referring to any of the subtypes discussed below.

While objectal opposites are difficult to define it is generally accepted that the disappearance of an object is the closet rather than the lack of physical presence.