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contrasts that Westerners rather take for granted (see
Figure 1.5
). These
dualisms, as several previous commentators have noted, comprise a 'seman-
tic rule topic' that at some level governs specific acts of verbal and visual
representation. They are the epistemic means by which we assure ourselves
that there is a measure of 'ontological hygiene' abroad in the world. These
binaries create boundaries and differences that are presumed to inhere in
reality, in part 'by nature', in part by design.
16
Have a close look at
Figure 1.5.
Do most of the dualisms listed
appear familiar to the point of being 'common sense'? If so, it's because
we're so accustomed to using and encountering these various antonyms
'HARD' AND 'SOFT' ANTONYMS
Nature
Environment
Sex
Wilderness
Race
Biology
Genes
Organism
Real
Instinct
Rural
Countryside
Natural world
Emotion
Woman
Mother
Savagery
Object
Reality
Authentic
Raw
Wild
Traditional
Physical
Body
Matter
Innate
Animal
Fact
Truth
Ontology
Observed
Disorder
Culture and nurture
Society
Gender
Cultivated, cleared and settled land
Social identity
Social conventions and practices
Cultural norms, habits & rituals
Social group
Fake
Free will
Urban
City
Built environment
Reason/rationality
Man
Father
Civility and civilization
Subject
Representation
Artificial
Cooked
Tame, domesticated or disciplined
Modern
Mental
Mind
Spirit, ideology and belief
Manufactured
Human
Fiction, conjecture and speculation
Falsity
Epistemology
Observer
Order
Depending on the precise context of their use in acts of communication, each of the terms on one
side of the figure can imply its opposite term in a 'hard' or 'soft' way. Some of the terms, again
depending on the context of use, have ambivalent meanings, slipping and sliding between and
across both sides of the figure. For instance, as indicated earlier in this chapter, 'race' can be used in
non-biological ways to designate cultural differences between groups of people.
