Understanding Denotative and Connotative Language
**Denotative and Connotative Language Features**
**The Semantic Meaning: Studying Words Through the Centuries**
Denotation: The objective meaning common to all speakers.
Connotation: The subjective meaning, which depends on the circumstances of the speaker.
Lexicon: This can mean a list of words or the words of a language.
Denotative Language Features: The meaning is more important than the signifier.
**Function of Words According to Use**
- Word Formation: Resources include referral, parasinthesis, and acronyms.
Composition: Forming a new word from the union of two or more existing words.
Derivation: Adding prefixes or suffixes to the root of a word or lexeme.
Parasinthesis: Combining new composition and derivation.
Acronym: Using the initial letters of several words to create a new word.
**Primitive Word**
Comprised of two parts: variable and invariable.
- Invariable: Root or lexeme.
- Variable: Conclusion, ending, or morpheme.
**Communicative Functions**
Emotive Function: This occurs when language reflects the expression of emotions or personal characteristics of the sender. The strength lies in the message.
Poetic Function: Used to produce what, in a narrower sense, is called literature.
Connotative Function: Oriented to the message itself.
**General Characteristics**
- Messages are subjective.
- Uses exclamatory intonation.
- Verbal actions are performed in the first person.
- Adjectives are core values.
- Uses diminutives and augmentatives.
- Uses interjections.
**Usually Reported In**
- Diaries and autobiographies.
- Poems.
- Film critiques, etc.
**External Characteristics of Recreational Texts**
**Written Forms**
Verse: Text distributed especially for a rhythmic effect.
Dialogue: (From Greek: *dialogos*, conversation between two.) A type of text where a discussion between a transmitter and a receiver appears directly.
Prose: When ideas are expressed in a natural and flowing manner, using phrases and sentences without a certain measure, chain, or rhyme.
**Distinctive Features of Literary Language**
- Recurrence.
- Perdurability.
- Plurisignification.
- Figurative language.
- Fictionality.
- Autonomy.
- Connotation.
**Recreational and Literary Texts**
- Narrative Genre: Recounts real or imagined events to build a story.
- Lyrical Genre: The author’s subjectivity or desire to reflect feelings dominates.
- Educational Genre: Seeks to convey some ethical or moral teaching.
- Drama: A diversity of situations aimed at public representation.
**Examples**
- Narrative: Story, novel.
- Lyrical: Ode, sonnet, elegy.
- Educational: Fable, letter, proverbs.
- Drama: Tragedy, farce, comedy.
**Popular Recreational Texts**
- Proverb: Traditional oral advice or instruction.
- Joke: A story or short phrase with a humorous sense.
- Riddle: A puzzle for another to decode.
- Cartoon: A story told through panels, with or without accompanying text boxes.
- Song: A composition in verse that is sung and accompanied by music.