antiphony

Noun

antiphony (countable and uncountable, plural antiphonies)

1. (singing) Alternate, or responsive singing by a choir split into two parts; a piece sung or chanted in this manner.
2. Alternate, or responsive ideas or opinions; juxtaposition.
   • Besides that Cardan pleases himself with that Antiphonie in Nature, that as the Ostrich being a Bird, yet never shes in the Aire, so this Bird of Paradise should alwayes be in the Aire, and never rest upon the Earth.1662, Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism, Book II, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 76
3. Synonym of apophony (“contrastive vowel modification”).
   • Still another phase of language which interests Professor Orr is that of vowel antiphony in the functional development of language; e.g. the “front-back” vowel sequence (tittle-tattle, et patati et patata, etc.).1953, The French Review, volume 27, page 300
   • Roman Jakobson gives evidence to show how language uses ‘antiphony’ or vowel opposition in pairs of words with opposite meanings: ‘gleam’ and ‘gloom’, ‘here’ and ‘there’, or in French ‘petit’ and ‘grand’.2000, Edward Nye, Literary and Linguistic Theories in Eighteenth-Century France: From Nuances to Impertinence, →ISBN, page 175

   Synonyms:

   apophony