Re: A ravening of ravens

Hi all,

Mark J. Reed wrote:
>
> I'm sorry, but I completely fail to see how either
> "to rent" or "to cleave" is its own antonym.  What
> am I missing??
"Ph.D." <phil@PHILLIPDRISCOLL....> replied:
> "To cleave" can mean "split in two" as in "a meat
> cleaver," and it can also mean "to adhere together"
> as in "a man shall cleave to his wife and the two
> shall become one."
Exactly.

> "To rent" is not really its own antonym, but perhaps
> the original poster was referring to the fact that a
> landlord rents a property (so he's "giving" it to
> someone else) and a tenant rents a property (so
> he's "taking" it from someone else).
Jim Henry commented:
> So, switching the agent of a ditransitive verb
> with its source/recipient (leaving its patient the same),
> without any explicit marking.  That's consistent
> with English's tendency to vary the valency or argument structure
> of many verbs without any explicit marking.
Sure.  Another way of looking at it is that the
relationship between the two parties to an exchange
is unchanged by a change of focus.  The same word
can serve for both "buy" and "sell", or for both "give"
and "take"; or indeed for "exchange" and "exchange".
"He exchanged gifts with me." describes the same
relationship, or reciprocal action, as "I exchanged
gifts with him."

caeruleancentaur came back with:
[quotes snipt]
> Some folks are missing the point because of an error in the original
> message.  The contrast is not between "to rent" and "to cleave," but
> between "to REND" and "to cleave."  "Rent" is the past tense
> of "rend."
>
> to rend one's garments.
> He rent his garments in sorrow.
>
> Thus "cleave, split in two" is a synonym of "rend, tear."
> And "cleave, adhere" is an antonmym of "rend, tear."
No, Charlie, both the landlord and the tenant do
rent the property.  The "rent" of your example
is another word, albeit a homophone of the "rent"
I intended.

Regards,
The Original Poster

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