Tham khảo tài liệu 'giáo trình ngữ nghĩa học tiếng anh – phần 2', ngoại ngữ, ngữ pháp tiếng anh phục vụ nhu cầu học tập, nghiên cứu và làm việc hiệu quả | 4. Look up the meaning of democracy in your dictionary. 5. If you look out of the window now you ll see who I mean. Denotation13 and connotation14 Definition The denotation of a word is the core central or referential meaning of the word found in a dictionary. In English a content word15 may have its denotation described in terms of a set of semantic features that serve to identify the particular concept associated with the word. The connotation of a word is the additional meaning that the word has beyond its denotative meaning. It shows people s emotions and ốr attitudes16 towards what the word refers to. 13 Denotation is also referred to as denotative meaning. 14 Connotation is also referred to as connotative meaning. 15 Content words principally nouns verbs adjectives and adverbs like democracy mother stir-fry happy and totally have meaning in that they refer to objects events and abstract concepts Finegan 1994 161 while function words specifically articles prepositions conjunctions and auxiliaries like a an including nevertheless but should etc. also carry meaning though in a different way from content words to signal grammatical relations. Finegan 1994 175 16 The referential meaning of a word or sentence is frequently called its denotation in contrast to the connotation which includes both its social and affective meaning. Finegan 1994 161 http 30 Ex1. Child is denotatively described as human -mature and male . Under a certain circumstance child may positively be connoted as affectionate or innocent . Under another circumstance child may negatively be connoted as noisy or irritating . Ex2. Woman is denotatively described as human mature and female . Under a certain circumstance woman may positively be connoted as devoted or patient . Under another circumstance woman may negatively be connoted as wicked or talkative . The denotation of a word can easily be found in a dictionary while its connotation s may probably depend on such .
