Word Choice and Connotation
Introduced| English | Meaning |
|---|---|
| connotative and denotative meanings/kɒnəˈtætɪv ænd dɪˈnəʊtətɪv ˈmiːnɪŋz/ | Denotation is a word's dictionary sense, and connotation is the feeling that word also carries. |
Ambitious or expensive?
- Call a policy ambitious and the reader leans one way; call it expensive and they lean the other.
- No fact changed between the two sentences.
- That gap between what a word refers to and what it carries is where diction analysis lives.
Calling a fee “modest” does not shrink the bill; it changes the expression on the reader’s face.
Denotation and connotation
- Words have both connotative and denotative meanings 内涵义与外延义.
- Denotation is what a word refers to; connotation is what it carries with it.
- Two words with the same denotation can produce opposite dispositions in a reader.
Same denotation, different connotation
Sort each pair member by the disposition it carries.
Connotation is...
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Denotation refers; connotation carries. Two words can share the first and differ in the second.
Descriptive words carry a perspective
- Descriptive words — adjectives and adverbs — not only qualify or modify what they describe.
- They also convey a perspective toward it.
- So a modifier is never neutral: choosing one is taking a position, however quietly.
Adjectives and adverbs modify what they describe without conveying a perspective.
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The CED says descriptive words also convey a perspective — a modifier is never neutral.
"The writer uses strong diction" earns nothing. Diction analysis requires naming the connotation — what the chosen word carries that a neutral synonym would not — and saying what that does to the reader's disposition.
Select all that precise word choice does.
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An inflated word used slightly wrongly reads as a loss of control.
Precision
- Precise word choice reduces confusion and helps an audience perceive the writer's perspective.
- Precision is not the same as sophistication — the exactly right common word beats an impressive wrong one.
- An inflated word used slightly wrongly reads as a loss of control, which examiners notice.
To analyse a loaded word, ask what its ____ synonym would have been.
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The difference between the two is exactly what the writer added.
Match each pair to what the choice adds.
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Where denotation is shared, everything that differs is a rhetorical choice.
Analysing diction
- Find a loaded word and ask what a neutral synonym would have been.
- The difference between the two is exactly what the writer added.
- Say what that addition does to the reader's disposition — that is the analysis.
A writer calls the supporters determined in one paragraph and unyielding in the next. Both denote persistence; the first approves and the second obstructs. The facts described did not change — the reader's sympathy did.
Denotation is what a word refers to; connotation is what it carries. Descriptive words convey a perspective as well as modify, and precise word choice helps a reader perceive it. To analyse diction, name the neutral synonym and say what the writer's choice added.
Write from the word inexpensive
- A writer changes 'cheap' to 'inexpensive' for the same low price.
- Say what changed, denotation or connotation.
A review calls a meal cheap, then a revision calls the same price inexpensive. What changed, and what stayed?
Same referent, different attitude.
What changed when cheap became inexpensive?
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Inexpensive keeps the price and loses the sneer.