CHAPTER
I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background
Of Study
Some
people would like semantics to pursue study of meaning in a wider sense of ‘all
that is communicated by language’; others (among them most modern writers
within the framework of general linguistics) limit it in practice to the study
of logical or conceptual meaning. It needs no great insight to see that
semantics in the former, wider sense can lead us once again into the void from
which Bloomfield retreated with understandable misgivings- the description of
all that may be the object of human knowledge or belief. On the other hand, we
can, by carefully distinguishing types of meaning, show how they all fit into
the total composite effect of a linguistic communication, and show how method
of study appropriate to one type may not be appropriate to another.
A piece of
language conveys its dictionary meaning, connotations beyond the dictionary
meaning, information about the social context of language use, speaker’s
feelings and attitudes rubbing off of one meaning on the another meaning of the
same word when it has two meanings and meaning because of habit occurrence.
B. Problem
Formulation
1.
What
definition of Emotive Meaning?
2.
What
is definition of Connotation Meaning?
C. Purpose
Of Study
Writer
makes this paper for several purposes, there are the purposes;
1.
To make the emotive meaning and connotation
understood among the English department students in semantics.
2.
To make English department students know
the important of emotive
meaning and connotation.
CHAPTER
II
DISCUSSION
A. Definition
of Emotive Meaning
The emotive
meaning of a term is the attitude or other emotional state that is
conventionally taken to be expressed by a straightforward use of it. Thus a
derogatory term conventionally expresses some kind of contempt or hostility to
some class of people. Terms like ‘firm’, ‘stubborn’, and ‘pig-headed’ apply to
more or less the same class of people for more or less the same reason, but
convey different appreciations. Other terms like ‘super!’ or ‘wow!’ have
nothing but an emotive function, but most terms with which we communicate
approval or disapproval have descriptive
aspects as well.
•
Example: “bureaucrat,” “government official,” and “public servant” designate
nearly the same thing but convey clearly different attitudes
(bureaucrat=negative; gov’t. official=neutral; public servant=positive).
• Example: “terrorist,” “rebel,” and “freedom fighter”
The headline, “Diversity forums incite discussion” (Sonoma State Star, 3/31/09) definitely feels different from “forums inspire discussions,” or “forums prompt discussions,” even though they all have the same cognitive meaning.
• Example: “censorship” sounds inherently bad, or wrong, whereas “editorial review” sounds neutral (or at least less negative), and “filtering/screening” is possibly positive, as in “screening obscene language from children’s programming.”
• Example: “discriminating” sounds inherently wrong whereas “distinguishing” sounds neutral and “scoring” or “sorting” or “grading” are possibly positive.
• Example: “ghetto” has a negative emotive meaning, “economically deprived area” sounds more neutral, and “economic development zone” sounds more positive, or optimistic.
• Example: I once saw a medical information sheet on the Body Mass Index (BMI) stating that a BMI of 25 or less is considered a healthy weight, a BMI of 25-30 is overweight, and a BMI of 30 and above is obese. It then explained that “Obesity is a medical term and is not derogatory or judgmental.” They are saying that they are using the term only in the cognitive sense, not with any emotive meaning.
• Emotive meaning is not necessarily bad. Typically, positive terms will be applied to positive things and negative emotive terms will be applied to things that are widely recognized to be negative. For example, “Footbinding in China was first banned in 1912. But some continued binding their feet in secret. Some of the last survivors of this barbaric practice are living in Liuyicun, a village in Southern China's Yunnan province.” (from NPR.org)
Emotive meaning can be a trick to pass off controversial value judgments to an audience without any supporting reasons. Thus, it helps to disguise “unsupported assertion.” Emotive meaning can be a tool for insinuating things about other people without explicitly stating an accusation or supporting it. Further, highly emotional emotive meaning in your speaking/writing, without supporting reasoning, leads to emotional manipulation.
• Example: “terrorist,” “rebel,” and “freedom fighter”
The headline, “Diversity forums incite discussion” (Sonoma State Star, 3/31/09) definitely feels different from “forums inspire discussions,” or “forums prompt discussions,” even though they all have the same cognitive meaning.
• Example: “censorship” sounds inherently bad, or wrong, whereas “editorial review” sounds neutral (or at least less negative), and “filtering/screening” is possibly positive, as in “screening obscene language from children’s programming.”
• Example: “discriminating” sounds inherently wrong whereas “distinguishing” sounds neutral and “scoring” or “sorting” or “grading” are possibly positive.
• Example: “ghetto” has a negative emotive meaning, “economically deprived area” sounds more neutral, and “economic development zone” sounds more positive, or optimistic.
• Example: I once saw a medical information sheet on the Body Mass Index (BMI) stating that a BMI of 25 or less is considered a healthy weight, a BMI of 25-30 is overweight, and a BMI of 30 and above is obese. It then explained that “Obesity is a medical term and is not derogatory or judgmental.” They are saying that they are using the term only in the cognitive sense, not with any emotive meaning.
• Emotive meaning is not necessarily bad. Typically, positive terms will be applied to positive things and negative emotive terms will be applied to things that are widely recognized to be negative. For example, “Footbinding in China was first banned in 1912. But some continued binding their feet in secret. Some of the last survivors of this barbaric practice are living in Liuyicun, a village in Southern China's Yunnan province.” (from NPR.org)
Emotive meaning can be a trick to pass off controversial value judgments to an audience without any supporting reasons. Thus, it helps to disguise “unsupported assertion.” Emotive meaning can be a tool for insinuating things about other people without explicitly stating an accusation or supporting it. Further, highly emotional emotive meaning in your speaking/writing, without supporting reasoning, leads to emotional manipulation.
B.
Definition Of Connotation
Connotation refers to a meaning that is
implied by a word apart from the thing which it describes explicitly.
When these associations are widespread and become established by common usage,
a new denotation is recorded in dictionaries. A possible example of such change
would be vicious. Originally derived from vice, it meant
“extremely wicked”. In modern British usage it is commonly used to mean
“fierce”, as in the brown rat is a vicious animal.
Words carry cultural and emotional
associations or meanings in addition to their literal meanings or denotations.
For instance, “Wall Street” literally means a street situated in lower
Manhattan but connotatively it refers to “wealth” and “power”.
·
Positive and Negative Connotations
Words may have positive or negative
connotation that depends upon social, cultural and personal experiences of
individuals. For example, the words childish, childlike and youthful have the
same denotative but different connotative meanings. Childish and childlike have
a negative connotation as they refer to an immature behavior of a person.
Whereas, Youthful implies that a person is lively and energetic.
·
Common Examples of Connotation
Below are a few examples of suggested meanings
of words shaped by cultural and emotional associations:
~
A dog
connotes shamelessness or an ugly face.
~
A dove
implies peace or gentility.
~
Home
suggests family, comfort and security.
~
Politician
has a negative connotation of wickedness and insincerity while statesperson
connotes sincerity.
~
Pushy
refers to someone loud-mouthed and irritating.
~
Mom and
Dad when used in place of mother and father connote loving parents.
·
How to convey the
connotative meaning of a word into another language
The denotative meaning of a word, while it
is the basic one, is not its only or whole meaning. Besides denoting or
concrete things, action or concept, a word may carry varios additional
overtones generally described as connotations. They are made up of different
components: those that express one's attitude to the things spoken about (this
is called an emotive component of meaning) or those that indicate the sphere in
which the discourse takes place (this is called a stylistic reference of a
word).
E.g. Father, dad, daddy, pop, old man - all have the same denotating meaning (they are all synonyms), but they have different emotive meanings and stylistic references.
These additional meanings or components of the general meanings may be part of the words' dictionary meaning, i.e. they may be present in a word taken apartfrom the context.
At the same time, this additional meaning may be part of the word's contextual meaning. It may appear as a result of the word's correlation with other words.
Connotation is one of the keys to the power of words. It's especially evident, patient in a literary text, when the most innocent-looking word can acquire the most vivid connotations.
As it has been stated above, one of the components of a word's meaning is its emotive component. Emotive connotations are rendered by the emotional or expressive counterpart of meaning. Emotive connotations of a word can directly express or evoke:
1) Emotion (e.g.: daddy - father);
2) Evaluation (e.g.: clique - group);
3) Intensity (e.g.: adore - love);
4) Stylistic colouring (e.g.: slay - kill).
The content of the emotional component of meaning varies considerably. The range of emotions stretches from positive to negative: admiration, tenderness, respect, scorn, irony, loathing.
The expressive counterpart of a meaning is optional and even if it's present its proportion with respect of logical counterpart may vary within wide limits.
The meaning of many words is subject to complex association originating in context of which both the speaker and the listener are aware and which form connotational component of meaning. In some words the realization of meaning is accompanied by additional stylistic colouring revealing the speaker's attitude to the situation and his interlocutior.
It's very important toremember that affective connotations of a word can be within its semantic structure registered in its dictionary meaning or can be imposed by the context.
E.g. Fabulous, stunning, smart, top-flight, terrific and the like have special emotive meaning fixed in dictionaries.
E.g. He's very rich.
He's fabulously rich.
Many words acquire an emotive meaning only in a definite context. In that case we say that a word has a contextual emotive meaning.
So we can conclude that affective connotations of a word are peculiar to it either on the pragmatic or syntagmatic level.
E.g. Father, dad, daddy, pop, old man - all have the same denotating meaning (they are all synonyms), but they have different emotive meanings and stylistic references.
These additional meanings or components of the general meanings may be part of the words' dictionary meaning, i.e. they may be present in a word taken apartfrom the context.
At the same time, this additional meaning may be part of the word's contextual meaning. It may appear as a result of the word's correlation with other words.
Connotation is one of the keys to the power of words. It's especially evident, patient in a literary text, when the most innocent-looking word can acquire the most vivid connotations.
As it has been stated above, one of the components of a word's meaning is its emotive component. Emotive connotations are rendered by the emotional or expressive counterpart of meaning. Emotive connotations of a word can directly express or evoke:
1) Emotion (e.g.: daddy - father);
2) Evaluation (e.g.: clique - group);
3) Intensity (e.g.: adore - love);
4) Stylistic colouring (e.g.: slay - kill).
The content of the emotional component of meaning varies considerably. The range of emotions stretches from positive to negative: admiration, tenderness, respect, scorn, irony, loathing.
The expressive counterpart of a meaning is optional and even if it's present its proportion with respect of logical counterpart may vary within wide limits.
The meaning of many words is subject to complex association originating in context of which both the speaker and the listener are aware and which form connotational component of meaning. In some words the realization of meaning is accompanied by additional stylistic colouring revealing the speaker's attitude to the situation and his interlocutior.
It's very important toremember that affective connotations of a word can be within its semantic structure registered in its dictionary meaning or can be imposed by the context.
E.g. Fabulous, stunning, smart, top-flight, terrific and the like have special emotive meaning fixed in dictionaries.
E.g. He's very rich.
He's fabulously rich.
Many words acquire an emotive meaning only in a definite context. In that case we say that a word has a contextual emotive meaning.
So we can conclude that affective connotations of a word are peculiar to it either on the pragmatic or syntagmatic level.
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