Denotation and Connotation (Review)
We talked about denotation and connotation in Unit 10, Band 3. Both denotation and connotation concern the understanding of word meanings. Denotation is the literal meaning of a word — what you find in a dictionary. Connotation, on the other hand, is the implied meaning of a word — what a word suggests to you, or what it makes you feel, what it makes you think of.
For the word “die”, for example, the denotation is “stop living”. But in the sentence “Some die at 30 but are not buried until they're 70”, the word “die” connotes “stop living spiritually” or “stop growing intellectually.”
Another example is the word “black”, which means “the darkest color” or “the lack of light”. What we have been studying up to this point then, are the denotation of this word — that is, what the word literally means. Going beyond denotation, we can understand that “black is beautiful” and that having a business “in the black” is also a good thing. On the other hand, you wouldn't want to be known as “the black sheep” of your family or to have people think your heart was “black”. As we see, even a simple word naming a color can have a wide range of possible meanings, depending on how we use it. This is what is meant by connotation, the implied or suggested meaning of a word.
A writer has many options in choosing words to make a point, and we have to be aware that the writer's choice of one word over a similar one can influence us when we read. In fact, writers can make us feel the way they want us to feel through connotations of words. Dictionaries do not usually include in their definitions all the connotations of a word. That's where our knowledge of a word comes. The more we can develop a sense of connotation, the more we will understand how a writer can influence our emotional reactions to words.
Read carefully the following sentences taken from Passage A, paying close attention to the underlined words in them. They all have clear denotations, but each has a number of connotations. Find out the denotation of the word and at least one of its connotations.
Example 1
The case is an illustration of some of the delicate cultural issues the company faces as... (Paragraph 6, Passage A, Unit 9)
Denotation: easily made ill; needing careful handling
Connotation(s): sensitive; difficult or hard to deal with
Examples 2
For all its concern about foreign cultural invasion and its defense against the pollution of the French language by English words, …(Paragraph 8, passage A, Unit 9)
Denotation:
invasion: an attack in war when the enemy spreads into and tries to control a country
pollution: the action of polluting or the state of being polluted
Connotation(s):
invasion: intrusion; strong influence
pollution: making something become not pure; making something a mixture of
Example 3
The opening of Eastern Europe is another prize for the company, which thinks that millions of people will put Disneyland at the top of a list of places to visit on their first trip to Western Europe. (Paragraph 17, passage A, Unit 9)
Denotation: a reward
Connotation(s): an advantage
阅读技能: Denotation and Connotation (Review)
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