Continuing My Contradictory Abstract Noun Study

Back on May 1st in my post Reviewing April and Contemplating May, I talked about my plan to collect all of the abstract nouns and place them in grids along the three axes of fear (fight to flight); control (inner to outer); and bias (positive to negative) in an attempt to find a new Big Five contradictory abstract nouns.

I made two charts (one for positive bias, and one for negative bias) with four squares on each representing:
1. inner control fight
2. inner control flight
3. outer control fight
4. outer control flight

I then printed and cut out abstract nouns and pasted them into my eight squares (see image above). I thought this would be easy and fun, but I found it hard, challenging, and time consuming. Very few of the words fit easily into one of the squares. As usual I was completely over-thinking the exercise, but that is why abstract nouns are so interesting: they are very difficult concepts that one can think about forever.

My charts, and my lists of abstract nouns, are very far from complete, but looking at them the other day, I finally found the interesting pattern I was hoping to find. Here is my thought process that led me there:

I’m glad I took a quiet moment to look at the abstract noun clusters I made. They are starting to make sense. I started with the Negative bias sheet since it is so sparse (which doesn’t make sense since there’s an antonym for every noun, but the list I used had a strong positive bias, so I started looking at the fight or flight of outer control and found Weakness in the flight outer control box. Since “strength” was one of Feuerbach‘s legitimate aspirations— where I found the original Big Five—weakness could be one of the new Big Five, so then I looked for its equivalent in the fight outer control box, and found Jealousy which I found interesting. Then in fight inner control I found Irritation and Annoyance, and in the flight inner control I found Worry / Anxiety; and right in the center Fear. So from only looking at the negative bias sheet my new big five contradictory abstract nouns would  be:

Weakness / Strength
Jealousy / [generosity, confidence, comfort, contentedness]
Irritation / [calm, composure, delight, ease]
Worry / [calm, comfort, unconcern, contentment, serenity]
Fear / [confidence, boldness]

I found a quote from Jon Meacham that said: “The opposite of fear is hope, defined as the expectation of good fortune not only for ourselves but for a group to which we belong. Fear feeds anxiety and produces anger; hope, particularly in a political sense, breeds optimism and feelings of well-being.”

While looking at the positive bias chart, I had put Hope in fight inner control, and Patience in flight inner control: Knowledge in fight outer control and Surprise in flight outer control. Right in the center I have Joy, Music, Delight Reality, and Helpfulness. So just based on my positive bias chart, my big five would be:

Weakness / Surprise
Jealousy / Knowledge
Irritation / Hope
Worry / Patience
Fear / Delight

However, I think I like the idea of looking at the combinations along fight or flight, or inner and outer control, so what would that look like?

Fight / Flight

Weakness / Jealousy
Annoyance/ Worry
Knowledge / Surprise
Hope / Patience
Fear / Delight

OR

Inner / Outer Control

Hope / Knowledge
Patience / Surprise
Jealousy / Annoyance
Worry / Weakness
Fear / Delight

However, if I look at that quote and start with Fear / Hope what does that do?

Fear / Hope
Weakness / Strength (inner control fight same as hope, so in my chart along the diagonal but on two different sheets)
Worry / Knowledge
Jealousy / Patience (forgiveness, decency, charity, calm)
Surprise / Annoyance

Hmm, so this is interesting. To find the contradictory abstract noun in a more traditional antonym dialectic kind of way using my charts I go across the diagonal on the other bias, so if I start with an abstract noun in a positive outer control flight square, I look for its contradiction in a negative inner control fight square.

The question is does it work for every abstract noun in the square. Is pride contradictory to refreshment? Is Faithfulness contradictory to Adulthood and dictatorship? This interesting insight gives me reason to complete my list with a more equal amount of “negative” abstract nouns and continue to play with this concept.

If you would like to play along, here is a blank Positive Bias chart (pdf), Negative Bias chart (pdf), and a list of abstract nouns (pdf).

My Personal Big Five / The New Big Five

After finding this pattern in the charts, I started thinking about the contradictory abstract nouns that are important in my life. I wrote, “I think Expectation and Disappointment are one of my big five. Impression vs reality, judgement vs. truth.”

I found disappointment in the flight outer control box of negative bias, so is expectation in fight inner control positive? I found Excitement, Enthusiasm,  . . . I didn’t find expectation at all. I don’t think I would put it in fight inner control though.  I don’t even think I would put it in positive bias. Expectations are often negative and lead to disappointment. They are outside one’s control, and are a kind of fight against the unknown. However, that’s other people’s expectations, what about my expectations? Still a fight against the unknown, an extrapolation of previous experience and learned knowledge, but they can still lead to disappointment. So what would be in the correct box as the contradictory noun to disappointment?

I continued trying to find the new Big Five with an emphasis on them being important to my life and here’s my thought process:

Fear / Hope : Fear / Acceptance
Weakness / Strength
Worry / Knowledge: Knowledge / the unknown
Jealousy / Patience (forgiveness, decency, charity, calm): Jealousy / Charity is interesting
Surprise / Annoyance

I’m not sure this is a big five list lets see: the first two work, but the next three don’t, so I’ll keep trying.
Hope / Fear
Strength / Weakness
Expectation / Disappointment
Value / uselessness, worthlessness
Jealousy / Generosity OR decency / atrocity

I think this gets closer to my big five: though jealousy would be a human big five and so would decency, I don’t think they are big five in my life so Creativity / Literalness, reality

It’s strange that the only antonyms I found for creativity were Literalness, and reality. That makes creativity an interesting choice. So now I have:

Hope / Fear
Strength / Weakness
Creativity / Reality
Value / Worthlessness
Patience / Impatience or Persistence / cessation or determination / reluctance or doubt / certainty

Are those as strong as the first big five? Love / Apathy; Truth / Deceit; Beauty / Ugliness; Happiness / Misery; Wisdom / Naivete

Do they work as my big five? I think so. 

What is the first contradictory noun pair I want to look at?

Hope / Fear
Strength / Weakness
Creativity / Reality
Value / Worthlessness
Patience / Impatience or Persistence / cessation or determination / reluctance or doubt / certainty

I’m having trouble deciding on that last one. Determination / Reluctance is a big one for me. Doubt / Certainty is also a really good one. Maybe I don’t want to look at hope and fear this time around, or maybe Doubt / Certainty is kind of the same thing as hope/fear.  And Strength/ Weakness could be Patience/ Impatience or Determination / Reluctance. I don’t think I’m happy with Reality as the antonym of Creativity. or literalness either. There’s got to be a better contradictory noun. I keep thinking dullness. I’m playing over at thesaurus.com but it isn’t going well. The only antonym for creativity is reality. The only other word I came up with is actuality which is a little better.

So now I have:

Doubt / Certainty
Determination / Reluctance
Creativity / Actuality
Value / Worthlessness
Patience / Impatience

As you can see, it took a lot of time and thought, but I have finally come up with five pairs of contradictory abstract nouns to explore in the coming months that are as powerful and meaningful to me as the first Big Five I was exploring. I’m excited to see where this new focus takes me. With my new list I can start with Doubt / Certainty.

Since it’s another cloudy, rainy day, today’s images beginning to explore the doubt in certainty and the certainty in doubt were taken in the mirrorworld where I have wrapped fairy lights around the three loops that were holding my collapsible laundry basket (this model is not the same as mine, but is similar) in a globe shape.