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Literature review. According to most linguists, 
antithesis is one of the most characteristic devices of the 
abstract or "intellectual style", and the semantics of the 
antithesis consists in opposing such thoughts expressed 
verbally, which must somehow be emphasized or emphasized 
in a literary text. S. Bally, adhering to this position, clarifies 
and deepens this idea: “Antithesis in the broadest sense of the 
word is nothing but the continuation and development of the 
tendency inherent in the human mind to oppose concepts. The 
antithesis is a convincing example of the fact that stylistic 
devices reproduce and “aestheticize” the natural tendencies of 
speech ”[2]. 
Research Methodology. Defining the essence of the 
antithesis and systematizing it from the point of view of a 
wide variety of approaches and various aspects, it should be 
noted that the study of this contrast figure is extremely 
uneven. So, stylistic and linguistic definitions of this figure of 
contrast are present in almost all educational (and, above all, 
university) courses in stylistics and linguistics, while the 
analysis of the antithesis from the point of view of its 
structure, origin and semantic originality, not counting some 
individual works [1, 3- 5], is carried out in modern linguistics 
selectively and often from different positions. In the linguistic 
literature, there is still no generalized, specific and universal 
structural and semantic classification of the antithesis, with the 
exception of works devoted to the analysis of only its 
individual, albeit quite expressive, features. 
Analysis and results. In this article, an attempt is 
made to create structural and semantic classifications of the 
antithesis, combining all the existing varieties of this contrast 
figure, illustrated by examples from the literature and oral 
creativity of the English and Russian peoples. 
The structural classification of the antithesis consists 
of external and internal structures. The external structure 
includes the quantitative ratio of oppositions in the main unit 
of speech - a phrase. With this approach, three quantitative 
types of antithesis are distinguished. 
1. A simple antithesis based on the use of one or more 
pairs of antonyms that are not united by any common 
meaning. 
2. A complex antithesis, or structurally compound 
antithesis, is formed by opposing not just individual lexemes 
that form an antonymic pair (or pair), but a whole series of 
relatively opposite words that make up a single whole and 
correspond to a single image. 
For example: 
But half of me is woman grown; 
The other half is child. 
But half my heart loves quiet ways; 
The other half is wild. 
(C. Woodrow. To A Vagabond) 
The grammatical structure of a complex antithesis, as 
mentioned above, is a combination of single-root and multi-
root lexical units belonging to different parts of speech, which 
can be represented by various combinations of words, for 
example: happy jumping, unhappy crying (adj. + verb); time 
paints, and timelessness ages (n. + verb.); young by choice 
die, old without exception (adj. + adv.); to say is ridiculous, to 
conceal is sinful (verb + adv.); who is not fit to command once 
cannot command twice (verb + numeral); a feather in the hand 
is better than a bird in the air (n + n); good fame sleeps, bad 
fame creeps (adj. + verb); speak truth rudely than lie covertly 
(verb + adv.), etc. [6, 7]. 
3. Expanded antithesis, also called alloyosis, "is used 
for expanded contrast characteristics of objects" [5]. In this 
case, the oppositions in the statement receive a lengthy