What is connotation? This word refers to linguistic terms, and therefore, its interpretation is often difficult. Nevertheless, connotations are found not only in literature, but also in everyday speech. That this is a connotation in simple words will be described in the article.
Dictionary Definition
About what connotation is, the dictionary says the following. This is the name of a stable association that occurs in a person’s mind in connection with the use of a word or expression in a certain meaning.
Example of use: In one of the books of the Soviet and Russian philologist, philosopher and culturologist S. S. Averintsev it is said that such a phenomenon as laughter is colored differently in different cultures, like the word "laughter", which takes on different connotations in different languages .
Origin of the word
Understanding the question of what connotation is, it is worth considering the etymology of this concept. The word comes from the Latin preposition con - “together” and the verb noto - “signify, mark.” From their addition, the verb connoto was first obtained, meaning "I have an additional meaning", and from it in the late Latin noun formed - connotatio, which means "the accompanying meaning of a unit of language."
Functions
For a better understanding of what connotation is, it would be advisable to consider its purpose.
The connotation includes additional functions - semantic or stylistic - that are stably connected in the minds of native speakers. Semantic - those that are associated with meaning, meaning, and stylistic - with expressive language means.
The studied concept serves to express various shades of utterance - emotional or evaluative. And also it is a reflection of the cultural traditions of society.
Annotation is one of the varieties of pragmatic information, that is, information useful, suitable for solving practical problems. It does not directly reflect the phenomena and objects themselves, but only a certain attitude towards them.
On the example of the "fox"
Sometimes the connotation is also called semantic, that is, semantic association. With its help, they reflect such a sign of a designated object that is stably connected in the minds of native speakers with this object. But at the same time, the indicated sign is not necessary for the use of this word.
Thus, in many European languages, the word used to designate a fox has the connotation of "deceit" or "cunning." These signs are not significant for this species of mammals. Faced with a fox, you will recognize it by its red fur, long fluffy tail, sharp muzzle. But you will not begin to check how cunning the animal is to find out its species. However, in the language, both of these tokens are steadily associated with each other. This is evidenced, for example, by the fact that a cunning person is often called a fox.
As mentioned above, connotations are a reflection of the assessment of the fact of surrounding reality accepted in this language community. And they also reflect cultural traditions. In accordance with this, deceit and cunning are constant characteristics of the fox depicted as a character in fairy tales about animals found in the folklore of many peoples.
How to recognize a connotation?
Being a kind of pragmatic information related to the word, and expressing attitude to the world around, but not reflecting it literally, connotations differ from other types of such information. What is the difference? It consists in the fact that this view and attitude does not belong to the person who pronounces them, as an individual person, but as a representative of a linguistic community.
For example, a word such as "nag" carries pragmatic information that contains an emotionally evaluative imprint. It indicates the speaker's attitude to the object. Calling a horse nags, a person expresses his own opinion regarding the quality of the animal. Consequently, connotations are not observed here.
In contrast, when using a token containing a connotation, a personal point of view on the designated object is not expressed. Calling a fox a fox, a person does not appreciate the animal. However, the connection between the fox and a quality such as cunning is present in the speaker’s mind.
Other connotation examples
Example 1. When a sister entered her brother’s room, she was indignant: “How do you live in such a stable!” The word “stable” means “cattle shelter”. Its connotation is "an unclean, dirty room."
Example 2. “I love my little sun so much!”, The mother touched, admiring her cute little one. In this case, when the word "sun" is used, it means, of course, not an astronomical object, but a person who emits light and heat.
Example 3. Oleg really hoped for a satisfactory mark for the term paper, although he understood that there was a lot of water in it. The word "water" has many connotations, one of them is "redundant information that does not carry a semantic load."
Example 4. “I did not expect such a self-confident guy to turn out to be a donkey,” Sergey complained of his new acquaintance. The word donkey is strongly associated with qualities such as stupidity and stubbornness.
Example 5. Andrei told his comrades that for almost half a year he worked like a donkey, but in the end he remained practically without a penny. Unlike the donkey, the connotation of such a lexeme as the donkey is endurance, high performance, patience.
Having considered the semantic and stylistic connotations, it is necessary to say about terms that are close to it in the sense.
Denotation and payoior
The word "denotation" comes from the late Latin participle denotatio, which is derived from the Latin dialect de - "separately" and the verb noto - "signify, mark," and translates as "designated". This is the direct, explicit meaning of the word, its literal meaning, its lexical meaning. Denotation is the opposite of connotation. The latter just arise from the former. Typically, this occurs by highlighting or enhancing a particular feature.
An example is the word pen. It was originally used to designate a writing tool, and later received a new connotation and is now associated with writers and literary work. For example, there is the expression "shark pen."
Pejorato, otherwise called pejorative vocabulary, comes from the Latin verb pējōrāre - "to worsen." These are words and phrases that express a negative assessment, disapproval, censure of something or someone, contempt or irony. In fact, pejorative is a negative connotation. It should be noted that such words are not curses. For example, the word “rag”, which was originally interpreted as “a piece of cloth”, subsequently acquired the connotation “spineless, weak man.” Other examples of peyorativa are "clown", "rhymelet", "crammed", "hook-keeper".