I’ve been reading a book on linguistics recently. During the process I have discovered some new terminology, such as converse terms. This phrase describes pairs of words where one word reverses the relationship that is denoted by the first.
As someone else put it, there’s a relationship of equivalence. In other words, if you are my mother, then I have to be your daughter. If I am standing over a bridge, then the bridge is under my feet. Here are some more examples:
- ancestor and descendant
- before and after
- bequeath and inherit
- buy and sell
- doctor and patient
- employer and employee
- father and son
- give and receive
- guest and host
- husband and wife
- infer and imply
- lend and borrow
- parents and children
- predator and prey
- sister and brother
- teach and learn
- teacher and student
- trainer and trainee
Blog and lurk?
post and respond
publish and peruse
write and read
send (or transmit) and receive
shooter and target
pull and push
Re Converse Terms.
‘…if you are my mother, then I have to be your daughter.’
As I am the son of my mother where does that leave me????
It works for both terms, Tony. If you are saying the phrase it would be ‘if you are my mother, then I have to be your son.’ 🙂
Thanks for the additions, Brad
Great blog, subscribed to your rss feed. Thanks.
deluge and drought
wet and dry
humid and arid
sunshine and cloudburst
Can you tell it’s raining here?
Crossed the 10,000 mark? I don’t even think I crossed 5 on my blog, but then again, it’s not like this place…
I just got a look at this here blog, and it looks useful. Maybe I’ll check back regularly just like the other 10,000 people 😉