Denotation & Connotation

A word has typically three parts; namely its (1) sound, its (2) denotation, and its (3) connotation.

A word's denotative meaning is its basic meaning as you would typically find in a dictionary. Apart from its denotation(s) a word may also have connotative meaning(s). The denotation for “red” is the color it represents. However, “red” can also remind us of other things like “passion”, “love”, “blood”, and “danger”. These latter meanings are connotations to “red”.

Poets often choose words not only for their sound and denotation, but also for their connotations. “A frequent misconception of poetic language is that poets seek always the most beautiful or noble-sounding words. What they really seek are the most meaningful words, and these vary from one context to another” (Sound & Sense, p. 45).

Exercise Questions:

Make sure that you can answer the following questions from the “Reviewing Chapter Three”-section in Sound & Sense, p. 48:

1. Distinguish between connotation and denotation as components of words.

3. Explore the ways in which a word may have multiple denotations, and multiple connotations, showing that different denotations may gave different connotations.

4. Explore the ways in which the context will determine which denotations and which connotations are relevant in a poem.

5. Show how levels of diction may characterize the speaker in a poem. (Compare with question #2 in the previous post.)