Semantics I acknowledgements
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| 2.4.2 Connotative Meaning Connotative meaning is concerned with the communicative value and expression has by virtue of what it refers to over its purely conceptual content. Leech noted that connotative meaning is aimed at The real word experience one associates with an expression when one uses or hears it. This is related to the meaning of an expression with the musical representation and visual art of it. For example, the meaning of the word baby reflect at drawing of a baby or an imitation of a baby cry. - The fact that connotative meaning is relatively unstable. It varies from time to time according to culture, historical period, No man is an Island SEMANTICS Page the experience and the individuals. As an example let’s take the word woman. In the past the connotative of woman were known as, frail, cowardly, emotional, irrational, and other weak or low connotations. And hundred years ago woman was considered to be one who was not wearing trousers. Today these have been changing or at least some of these characteristics cannot be entailed to woman. How then Mrs. Margaret Tatcher, Mrs. Indira Ghandi, Mrs. Cory aquino came to be leaders if they are frail, coward, emotional and irrational? But how we justify the sentence, he is really a woman ; which is often used by speakers to mean allusion This fact shows that up today, physically, woman is still weaker than man. - The fact that connotative meaning is indeterminate and open- ended, in a sense that conceptual meaning is determinate. Connotative meaning cannot be determined in similar way with conceptual meaning which is codified in term of limited set of symbols (like contrastive features. Connotative is on a par with our knowledge of the universe which is also open- ended. Even though the first fact seems to overlap with conceptual meaning we can say connotative opposed to conceptual meaning (denotative). It is fruitful to know that connotative meanings are different from language to language. |