ANTONYMIC RELATIONSHIPS IN IGBO PLACE NAMES

Abstract

The descriptions of some places in Igboland, that is place names, occur in pairs. We observed that a lexical relationship of semantic opposition exists between the pairs of place names—the pair of place names are in antonymic relationship. In some cases the antonymic relationships are of the gradable type, meaning that the antonyms form instances of contraries and implicitly or explicitly invoke a field over which the grading takes place that is a standard of comparison. There are also some of the antonymic relationships that are of the non-gradable type, that is, they are complementary pairs. This study discovered that the antonymic relationships in the pairs of place names are consequent upon the need for distinguishing references to groups of migrants of common ancestries. The study also found out that the antonymic relationships in the place names constitute a tool for determining the pattern of migration-the group that remained in the ancestral base and the one that migrated to a new base.