Part 1/2

Identification and Application:

• Denotation is the dictionary definition of a word.

• Connotation refers to the meaning that the word has acquired through association and use even if it is not the same as the word’s exact meaning.

• Connotations may be either positive or negative, depending on the context. For example, saying that someone’s clothes look “interesting” may be interpreted as either a negative or positive comment.

• When you’re analyzing connotative and denotative meanings, it’s important to remember that authors make specific, intentional choices with the words they use, thereby choosing to distinguish among the word’s connotations--choosing “respectful” over “polite,” for example.

• If you don’t know the precise meaning or connotations of a word, first try to figure it out from the context, and then check your guess in a dictionary.

Model: To understand a word’s denotation, or exact meaning, readers can use a number of different vocabulary strategies: They can analyze context, consider the meanings of roots, prefixes, and suffixes within the word, determine the word’s relationship to other words, and so on. It is always best to check the denotation of a word by looking up the word in a dictionary; that is where the denotation of a word is found. Connotation carries the denotation of some words a step further. Connotation is a shade of meaning that may be implied or associated with a word. To appreciate a word’s connotation, readers need to be aware that it may be associated with certain feelings or thoughts in the mind of the reader.

Part 2/2

As you read this excerpt from paragraphs 6 -7 of “New Directions,” think about the meaning of the word aroma.

• As the dinner noon bell rang, she dropped the savors into boiling fat and the aroma rose and floated over to the workers who spilled out of the gin, covered with white lint, looking like specters. Most workers had brought their lunches of pinto beans and biscuits or crackers, onions, and cans of sardines, but they were tempted by the hot meat pies which Annie ladled out of the fat.

Even if readers don’t know the exact definition of aroma, they can make an inference about its meaning from the specific evidence in the text—the food that Annie is dropping into the fat sends out a smell that “floated over to” the workers. You know that smells travel through air. Therefore, you can guess that the denotation, or dictionary definition, of aroma is “a smell.”

In this excerpt, Maya Angelou could have used the word smell rather than aroma because both words have the same dictionary meaning, or denotation. However, think about what happens when aroma is substituted for smell. The word aroma suggests, or connotes, a pleasant, satisfying smell. It helps to explain why the workers would be “tempted” by Annie’s cooking. Aroma has a positive connotation. By contrast, the noun smell is very general. It just means an odor that your nose senses. It has a neutral connotation because it does not suggest a shade of meaning. By itself, it has no emotional connotation at all.

Read this section  (the last paragraph) from “New Directions” to analyze how connotation can produce a positive or negative effect. Then answer the follow-up questions.

"Each of us has the right and the responsibility to assess the roads which lie ahead, and those over which we have traveled, and if the future road looms ominous or unpromising, and the roads back uninviting, then we need to gather our resolve and, carrying only the necessary baggage, step off that road into another direction. If the new choice is also unpalatable, without embarrassment, we must be ready to change that as well." (Angelou)