Conceptual and associative processing in antonymy and synonymy

Abstract Recent models of antonymy differ over the involvement of associative and conceptual connections in the representation of direct and indirect antonyms. To assess these models, subjects were presented with two sequential adjectives. In the first study they made relatedness judgments, and in the second study they made antonym and synonym judgments. Conceptual processes were manipulated by varying semantic distance, and associative processes were manipulated by varying lexical markedness. Judgments were fastest for direct antonyms, even when compared to synonyms of similar relatedness. Although judgments for synonyms were faster than for indirect antonyms, semantic distance and markedness had similar effects on these word classes. These results suggest that direct antonymy may utilize associative connections, but that indirect antonymy, like synonymy, relies primarily on conceptual connections.