In language classes, when you begin to explain about the human language It is normal for two concepts to come to light that are basic to allow us to communicate: connotation and denotation. They are two linguistic elements that enrich the language and make our communication with other people possible on different levels. But, unlike what it may seem at first, both concepts complement each other and provide greater linguistic richness. In this OneHowTo article we are going to tell you the difference between connotation and denotation so that these concepts are clear to you from now on and you better understand our communicative nature.
Denotative meaning
Before beginning to delve into the subject, it is important that when we speak of connotation and denotation we are referring to two possible meanings that words have. That is, we understand human language as a code that people have established to be able to refer to our external reality and talk about it; Well, these codes have different meanings when we use them and, within them, two significant aspects are also divided: the denotative and the connotative.
Let’s start with the first one. The denotative meaning is the one that is accepted by all speakers, the standard meaning that we have given to the things that configure our reality in order to understand it. It would be the meaning that appears in the dictionary because it is the one that has been agreed as authentic.
How can we imagine, this meaning will always go linked very directly to the context in which the speakers are found, since the current word “sea” is not the same meaning as the one they had in the Middle Ages when it was considered that the Earth was flat, for example. Thus, how we see, the denotative meaning is directly related to the context.
Connotative meaning
But language does not only have a single meaning because, if it were, there would be no other linguistic functions, such as metaphor, for example. The poetry or suggestion that can be created with the use of some combinations of words or with only one is given by the connotative meaning of the tongue.
This occurs when the denotative meaning, that is, the generic and accepted by all (the objective) we add subjective elements, individual, suggestive. It is another meaning that words give us and that is not included in any dictionary or linguistic treatise because, as we have indicated, it is subjective and can come to depend on each individual, although there are some that are accepted by all.
Example between both meanings
Let’s give an example to understand the difference between connotative and denotative meaning. The denotative meaning of the word “sea” is the literal meaning that appears in the dictionary and that everyone conceives as such, that is, that portion of salty water that is found on our Earth and that makes up our oceans or, as indicated the RAE: m. or f. Mass of salty water that covers most of the earth’s surface.
But the word “sea” can also have other “hidden” meanings, such as tranquility, vacations, and so on. But for a person who works at sea (sailor, fisherman, lifeguard, etc.) this word will not have this connotative meaning but will have others such as work, fatigue, obligation, etc.
This is the difference of both meanings that we use unconsciously when we speak and that we activate innately thanks to experience.
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