Explanation:
Connotation and Denotation
Connotation and Denotation are two principal methods of describing the meanings of
words. Connotation refers to the wide array of positive and negative associations that
most words naturally carry with them, whereas denotation is the precise, literal definition
of a word that might be found in a dictionary.
Cars of the 1960’s
Thunderbird, Falcon, Charger, Comet, Mustang, Barracuda.
Cars of the 1970’s
Rabbit, Pinto, Colt, Civic, Starlet, Gremlin.
Introduce the idea of connotation, defining it as the associations that people make with a
word. You can contrast connotation with the denotative value of a word, its more literal
meaning, and give an example of a word (such as "chicken")
Connotation is the emotional and
imaginative association surrounding a word.
Denotation is the strict
dictionary meaning of a word.
Visiting Seema Srivastava’s Argumentative Writing class recently, I witnessed a very useful
exercise for teaching students the difference between connotation and denotation. Under the
rubric of teaching students about Pathos, or appeal to emotion, in the Aristotelian
Pathos/Ethos/Logos triangle, she briefly described denotation as the literal meaning and
connotation as the emotional weight of a word, comparing cheap to inexpensive as an example.
She noted that non-native speakers often have difficulty with connotation, while native speakers
may use the words appropriately though unconsciously. She then presented students the
following groups of words and asked them to rank the words in order from positive to negative.
