Unit 10
Connotative Meaning
Associative Meaning:
In the United Nations,the non-English-
speaking countries often refer to the
Security council as,the highest organ”，
but,the highest organ” often has the
sexual associations in the mind of the
native speakers:“man?s genital organ”.
Some Vips sometimes call,the Security
Council”,this awesome organ”,（ 含有
,不文之物, 之意 ）,or,August Body”.
From Japan:
Special cocktails for the ladies with
nuts.
You are invited to take advantage of
the chambermaid.
From Mexico:
The manager has personally passed
all the water served here.
From Rome:
Ladies,leave your clothes here and
spend the afternoon having a good
time!
From Zurich:
Because of the impropriety of
entertaining guests of the opposite sex
in the bedrooms,it suggested that the
lobby be used for this purpose.
From Copenhagen:
We take your bags and send them in
all directions.
From the most distinguished tobacco
house in the world.
(from an advertisement for Dunhills)
“house” might be considered by the
uninitiated an unremarkable alternative
for firm or manufacturers; but its
associations are with gentlemanly
businesses carried on by long-
e s t a b l i s h e d f a m i l y f i r m s,
Cigarettes by John Player,England.
It is not so much the choice of words
as the syntactic construction ( that of
by connecting two noun phrases) that
suggests exclusiveness.
This construction usually indicates
some kind of artistic activity:
Landscape gardening by X;
Floral arrangements by Y;
Costumes by Z
From the most distinguished tobacco
house in the world.
Cigarettes by John Player,England.
So here there is an effort to dignify
the somewhat tarnished image of
cigarette-makers and -marketers with
overtones of quality and distinction.
A BBC programme on 11 February
1969 repor ted a pr op os a l for
establishing a new category of
ordained priest,who would do full-
time work in a factory or office in
addition to his pastoral duties.
When the question arose of what
this new type of cleric would be called,
the BBC interviewer made three
suggestions,auxiliary priests,part-
time priests,and worker priests.
For reasons not difficult to appreciate,
all of these were rejected,auxiliary
priests and part-time priests sound too
much like second-rate assistants,
whereas worker priests seems to allege
that other priests do not work.Thus the
arrival at a satisfactory title was a
matter of discarding titles with
u n f o r t u n a t e a s s o c i a t i o n s,
A conceptual explanation can also be
given,e.g,part-time priest is theologically
inaccurate because a priest is a priest all
the time,even when working in a factory;
worker priest is pleonastic in as much as
all priests have work to do,Thus an issue
of associations of,the right image” can
easily be turned into an argument about
dictionary meanings.
Connotative Meaning:
Connotative meaning is the
c om m u n ic a t i ve v a lu e an
expression has by virtue of what
it refers to,over and above its
purely conceptual content.
If the word woman is defined
conceptually by three feature
(+human,-male,+adult),then
the three properties "human",
"adult',and "female " must
provide a criterion of the correct
u s e of t h a t w o r d,
But there is a multitude of
additional,non-criterial properties
that we have learnt to expect a
referent of woman to possess.
They include not only physical
characteristics (biped,having
womb),but also psychological and
social properties (gregarious,
subject to maternal instinct),and
may extend to features which are
merely typical rather than invariable
concomitants of womanhood
(capable of speech,experienced in
cookery,skirt-or-dress-wearing).
Still further,connotative meaning
can embrace the putative(推定
的 )properties of the referent,due to
the viewpoint adopted by an
individual,or a group of people or a
w h o l e s o c i e t y,
So in the past woman has been
burdened with such attributes
(frail,prone to tears,cowardly,
emotional,irrational,inconstant)
as the dominant male has been
pleased to impose on her,as well
as with more becoming qualities
such as gentle,compassionate,
s e n s i t i v e,h a r d - w o r k i n g,
Obviously,connotations are apt to vary
from age to age and from society to
society,Connotations will vary,to some
extent,from individual to individual
within the same speech community,In
talking about connotation,one is in fact
talking about the real world experience
one associates with an expression when
one uses or hears it,
Connotations are relatively
unstable,that is,they vary
considerably,according to
culture,historical period,and the
experience of the individual.
C o n n o t a t i v e m e a n i n g is
indeterminate and open-ended in a
sense in which conceptual meaning
is not,Connotative meaning is
open-ended in the same way as our
knowledge and beliefs about the
u n i v e r s e a r e o p e n - e n d e d ;
Affective meaning is largely a
parasitic category in the sense that
to express our emotions we rely
upon the mediation of other
categories of meaning:conceptual,
c o n n o t a t i v e,or s t y l i s t i c,
little Small
famous notorious
slim/slender skinny
determined pigheaded
Fastidious,fussy,particular
critical fault-finding picky
fad,vogue,style
cunning,artful,sly
clique,gang,group
encourage instigate promote
Affective Meaning can depend on
the context:
He is bright and ambitious.
Knowledge of inequality has
stimulated envy,ambition and
greed.
Someone who is addressed," You
are a vicious tyrant and a villainous
reprobate,and I hate you for it!" is
left in little doubt as to the feelings
of the speaker towards him.
Hayakawa S.I.(1978) 在他所著的
,Language in Thought and Action”
一书中描述了这样一个故事：一位
著名的黑人社会学家外出旅行受到
了一对白人夫妇的热情款待, 为他
提供食宿等便利条件 。
见 Geoffrey Leech的著作 Semantics:
the study of meaning,1981,Second
Edition,Penguin Books.P44.
“Who?s insulting you,son?” said the man.
“You are,sir---that name you?re always
calling me.”
“What name?”
“Uh… you know.”
“I ain?t callin? you no names,son.”
,I mean your calling me ?nigger?.”
“Well,what?s insultin? about that? You are
a nigger,ain?t you?”
可是这对白人夫妇总是称他为
,nigger”,使得这位黑人在感激
这对夫妇的同时, 又因被称为
,nigger”内心又受到了伤害, 因
此在无法忍受的情况下, 终于鼓
足勇气要求白人夫妇不要使用
,nigger”这一带有侮辱含义的词 。
下面是他们之间的部分对话：
Emotional expression through
style comes about,for instance,
when we adopt an impolite tone to
express displeasure,or when we
adopt a casual tone to express
friendliness.
On the other hand,there
are elements of language
(chiefly interjections,like
Aha! and Yippee!) whose chief
functions to express emotion.
When we use t h e s e,we
communicate feelings and
attitudes w i t h o u t the
mediation of any other kind of
semantic f u n c t i o n,
Reflected meaning is the meaning,
which arises in cases of multiple
conceptual meaning,when one
sense of a word forms part of our
res pons e to a not her s e ns e,
In a church service,the
synonymous expressions The
Comforter and The Holy Ghost,
both refer to the Third Person
of the Trinity,but the
reactions to these terms can be
conditioned by the everyday
non-religious meanings of
comfort and ghost.
The Comforter sounds warm and "
comforting" (although in the
religious context,it means " the
strengthener or supporter ",while
The Holy Ghost sounds awesome.
More examples:
Since their popularization in senses
connected with the physiology of sex,it
has become increasingly difficult to use
terms like intercourse,ejaculation,and
erection in "innocent" senses without
conjuring up their sexual associations,
This process of taboo contamination has
accounted in the past for the dying-out of
the non-taboo sense of a word,Bloomfield
explained the replacement of cock in its
farmyard sense by rooster as due to the
influence of the taboo use of the former
word,and one wonders if intercourse is
n o w f o l l o w i n g a s i m i l a r p a t h,
Thematic meaning is what is
communicated by the way in
which a speaker or writer
organizes the message,in
terms of ordering,focus,
and emphasis.
It is often felt,for example,that an active
sentence such as 1) has a different meaning
from its passive equivalent 2),although in
conceptual content they seem to be the
same:
1) Mrs,Bessie Smith donated the first
prize.
2) The first prize was donated by Mrs,
Bessie Smith.
Certainly these have different
communicative values in that
they suggest different contexts
Connotative Meaning
Associative Meaning:
In the United Nations,the non-English-
speaking countries often refer to the
Security council as,the highest organ”，
but,the highest organ” often has the
sexual associations in the mind of the
native speakers:“man?s genital organ”.
Some Vips sometimes call,the Security
Council”,this awesome organ”,（ 含有
,不文之物, 之意 ）,or,August Body”.
From Japan:
Special cocktails for the ladies with
nuts.
You are invited to take advantage of
the chambermaid.
From Mexico:
The manager has personally passed
all the water served here.
From Rome:
Ladies,leave your clothes here and
spend the afternoon having a good
time!
From Zurich:
Because of the impropriety of
entertaining guests of the opposite sex
in the bedrooms,it suggested that the
lobby be used for this purpose.
From Copenhagen:
We take your bags and send them in
all directions.
From the most distinguished tobacco
house in the world.
(from an advertisement for Dunhills)
“house” might be considered by the
uninitiated an unremarkable alternative
for firm or manufacturers; but its
associations are with gentlemanly
businesses carried on by long-
e s t a b l i s h e d f a m i l y f i r m s,
Cigarettes by John Player,England.
It is not so much the choice of words
as the syntactic construction ( that of
by connecting two noun phrases) that
suggests exclusiveness.
This construction usually indicates
some kind of artistic activity:
Landscape gardening by X;
Floral arrangements by Y;
Costumes by Z
From the most distinguished tobacco
house in the world.
Cigarettes by John Player,England.
So here there is an effort to dignify
the somewhat tarnished image of
cigarette-makers and -marketers with
overtones of quality and distinction.
A BBC programme on 11 February
1969 repor ted a pr op os a l for
establishing a new category of
ordained priest,who would do full-
time work in a factory or office in
addition to his pastoral duties.
When the question arose of what
this new type of cleric would be called,
the BBC interviewer made three
suggestions,auxiliary priests,part-
time priests,and worker priests.
For reasons not difficult to appreciate,
all of these were rejected,auxiliary
priests and part-time priests sound too
much like second-rate assistants,
whereas worker priests seems to allege
that other priests do not work.Thus the
arrival at a satisfactory title was a
matter of discarding titles with
u n f o r t u n a t e a s s o c i a t i o n s,
A conceptual explanation can also be
given,e.g,part-time priest is theologically
inaccurate because a priest is a priest all
the time,even when working in a factory;
worker priest is pleonastic in as much as
all priests have work to do,Thus an issue
of associations of,the right image” can
easily be turned into an argument about
dictionary meanings.
Connotative Meaning:
Connotative meaning is the
c om m u n ic a t i ve v a lu e an
expression has by virtue of what
it refers to,over and above its
purely conceptual content.
If the word woman is defined
conceptually by three feature
(+human,-male,+adult),then
the three properties "human",
"adult',and "female " must
provide a criterion of the correct
u s e of t h a t w o r d,
But there is a multitude of
additional,non-criterial properties
that we have learnt to expect a
referent of woman to possess.
They include not only physical
characteristics (biped,having
womb),but also psychological and
social properties (gregarious,
subject to maternal instinct),and
may extend to features which are
merely typical rather than invariable
concomitants of womanhood
(capable of speech,experienced in
cookery,skirt-or-dress-wearing).
Still further,connotative meaning
can embrace the putative(推定
的 )properties of the referent,due to
the viewpoint adopted by an
individual,or a group of people or a
w h o l e s o c i e t y,
So in the past woman has been
burdened with such attributes
(frail,prone to tears,cowardly,
emotional,irrational,inconstant)
as the dominant male has been
pleased to impose on her,as well
as with more becoming qualities
such as gentle,compassionate,
s e n s i t i v e,h a r d - w o r k i n g,
Obviously,connotations are apt to vary
from age to age and from society to
society,Connotations will vary,to some
extent,from individual to individual
within the same speech community,In
talking about connotation,one is in fact
talking about the real world experience
one associates with an expression when
one uses or hears it,
Connotations are relatively
unstable,that is,they vary
considerably,according to
culture,historical period,and the
experience of the individual.
C o n n o t a t i v e m e a n i n g is
indeterminate and open-ended in a
sense in which conceptual meaning
is not,Connotative meaning is
open-ended in the same way as our
knowledge and beliefs about the
u n i v e r s e a r e o p e n - e n d e d ;
Affective meaning is largely a
parasitic category in the sense that
to express our emotions we rely
upon the mediation of other
categories of meaning:conceptual,
c o n n o t a t i v e,or s t y l i s t i c,
little Small
famous notorious
slim/slender skinny
determined pigheaded
Fastidious,fussy,particular
critical fault-finding picky
fad,vogue,style
cunning,artful,sly
clique,gang,group
encourage instigate promote
Affective Meaning can depend on
the context:
He is bright and ambitious.
Knowledge of inequality has
stimulated envy,ambition and
greed.
Someone who is addressed," You
are a vicious tyrant and a villainous
reprobate,and I hate you for it!" is
left in little doubt as to the feelings
of the speaker towards him.
Hayakawa S.I.(1978) 在他所著的
,Language in Thought and Action”
一书中描述了这样一个故事：一位
著名的黑人社会学家外出旅行受到
了一对白人夫妇的热情款待, 为他
提供食宿等便利条件 。
见 Geoffrey Leech的著作 Semantics:
the study of meaning,1981,Second
Edition,Penguin Books.P44.
“Who?s insulting you,son?” said the man.
“You are,sir---that name you?re always
calling me.”
“What name?”
“Uh… you know.”
“I ain?t callin? you no names,son.”
,I mean your calling me ?nigger?.”
“Well,what?s insultin? about that? You are
a nigger,ain?t you?”
可是这对白人夫妇总是称他为
,nigger”,使得这位黑人在感激
这对夫妇的同时, 又因被称为
,nigger”内心又受到了伤害, 因
此在无法忍受的情况下, 终于鼓
足勇气要求白人夫妇不要使用
,nigger”这一带有侮辱含义的词 。
下面是他们之间的部分对话：
Emotional expression through
style comes about,for instance,
when we adopt an impolite tone to
express displeasure,or when we
adopt a casual tone to express
friendliness.
On the other hand,there
are elements of language
(chiefly interjections,like
Aha! and Yippee!) whose chief
functions to express emotion.
When we use t h e s e,we
communicate feelings and
attitudes w i t h o u t the
mediation of any other kind of
semantic f u n c t i o n,
Reflected meaning is the meaning,
which arises in cases of multiple
conceptual meaning,when one
sense of a word forms part of our
res pons e to a not her s e ns e,
In a church service,the
synonymous expressions The
Comforter and The Holy Ghost,
both refer to the Third Person
of the Trinity,but the
reactions to these terms can be
conditioned by the everyday
non-religious meanings of
comfort and ghost.
The Comforter sounds warm and "
comforting" (although in the
religious context,it means " the
strengthener or supporter ",while
The Holy Ghost sounds awesome.
More examples:
Since their popularization in senses
connected with the physiology of sex,it
has become increasingly difficult to use
terms like intercourse,ejaculation,and
erection in "innocent" senses without
conjuring up their sexual associations,
This process of taboo contamination has
accounted in the past for the dying-out of
the non-taboo sense of a word,Bloomfield
explained the replacement of cock in its
farmyard sense by rooster as due to the
influence of the taboo use of the former
word,and one wonders if intercourse is
n o w f o l l o w i n g a s i m i l a r p a t h,
Thematic meaning is what is
communicated by the way in
which a speaker or writer
organizes the message,in
terms of ordering,focus,
and emphasis.
It is often felt,for example,that an active
sentence such as 1) has a different meaning
from its passive equivalent 2),although in
conceptual content they seem to be the
same:
1) Mrs,Bessie Smith donated the first
prize.
2) The first prize was donated by Mrs,
Bessie Smith.
Certainly these have different
communicative values in that
they suggest different contexts
