Connotation
The word dog has a certain denotation, the possibility of entering into numerous referring expressions such as the underlined expressions in the following.
1 This dog is a Dalmatian.
2 My children have just acquired a dog.
3 Several dogs were fighting over a bone.
But how do you feel about dogs? How does a particular society value dogs? Hjelmsle (1971:109–10) pointed out that among the Eskimos a dog is an animal that is used for pulling a sled, the Parsees regard dogs as nearly sacred, Hindus consider them a great pest and in Western Europe and America some members of the species still perform the original chores of hunting and guarding while others are merely ‘pets.’ Hjelmslev might have added that in certain societies the flesh of dogs is part of the human diet and in other societies it is not. The meaning of dog includes the attitudes of a society and of individuals, the pragmatic aspect. It would be wrong to think that a purely biological definition of the lexeme dog is a sufficient account of its meaning. Part of its meaning is its connotation, the affective or emotional associations it elicits, which clearly need not be the same for all people who know and use the word. A denotation identifies the central aspect of word meaning, which everybody generally agrees about. Connotation refers to the personal aspect of meaning, the emotional associations that the word arouses. Connotations vary according to the experience of individuals but, because people do have common experiences, some words have shared connotations.
Languages provide means of expressing different attitudes. The referring expressions that violin and that fiddle can have the same referent—can refer to the same object on a particular occasion—but they do not have the same meaning. They differ in connotation. Violin is the usual term, the neutral one; fiddle-is used for humor or to express affection or lack of esteem. Somewhat similar relations are seen with automobile and car, building and edifice, fire and conflagration and other sets, the members of which have, or can have, the same denotation but differ in the situations in which they are used and therefore have differences in the degree of formality, the style or ‘flavor’—the connotation. (We also need to note here that car, building, and fire have larger denotations than automobile, edifice and conflagration respectively.) The expression of attitudes can be quite subtle. We choose to use one word rather than another. We might, for example, say that Linda is thin, or slender, or svelte, or skinny.
1 This dog is a Dalmatian.
2 My children have just acquired a dog.
3 Several dogs were fighting over a bone.
But how do you feel about dogs? How does a particular society value dogs? Hjelmsle (1971:109–10) pointed out that among the Eskimos a dog is an animal that is used for pulling a sled, the Parsees regard dogs as nearly sacred, Hindus consider them a great pest and in Western Europe and America some members of the species still perform the original chores of hunting and guarding while others are merely ‘pets.’ Hjelmslev might have added that in certain societies the flesh of dogs is part of the human diet and in other societies it is not. The meaning of dog includes the attitudes of a society and of individuals, the pragmatic aspect. It would be wrong to think that a purely biological definition of the lexeme dog is a sufficient account of its meaning. Part of its meaning is its connotation, the affective or emotional associations it elicits, which clearly need not be the same for all people who know and use the word. A denotation identifies the central aspect of word meaning, which everybody generally agrees about. Connotation refers to the personal aspect of meaning, the emotional associations that the word arouses. Connotations vary according to the experience of individuals but, because people do have common experiences, some words have shared connotations.
Languages provide means of expressing different attitudes. The referring expressions that violin and that fiddle can have the same referent—can refer to the same object on a particular occasion—but they do not have the same meaning. They differ in connotation. Violin is the usual term, the neutral one; fiddle-is used for humor or to express affection or lack of esteem. Somewhat similar relations are seen with automobile and car, building and edifice, fire and conflagration and other sets, the members of which have, or can have, the same denotation but differ in the situations in which they are used and therefore have differences in the degree of formality, the style or ‘flavor’—the connotation. (We also need to note here that car, building, and fire have larger denotations than automobile, edifice and conflagration respectively.) The expression of attitudes can be quite subtle. We choose to use one word rather than another. We might, for example, say that Linda is thin, or slender, or svelte, or skinny.
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