The Emotive Component of Meaningby Louis B. Salomon

From Semantics and Common Sense

Course Title: Writing Prose

Instructor: Liu Hongyong

What do these words mean (literal/implied)?

Dove: a bird of the pigeon family; a symbol of peace; a person who prefers peace to war.

Hawk: a strong fast bird of prey; a symbol of force; a person who supports the use of

military force to solve problems. Man:

male human being; strong, brave.

Woman: female human being; tender, caring.

Warming Up

What is your reaction to these words?

shit: disgusting

traitor: revulsion

desk: nothing

because: nothing

Traditionally, grammarians have referred to the meaning of a word in two parts: denotation and connotation. The denotation of a word is the thing in the real world the word is linked to. The connotation of a word refers to the emotional meaning (emotive connotation) or associated meaning (linguistic connotation: 引申意义 ) that a word may carry.

Denotation and Connotation

The denotation of home is a place where one lives.

The connotation of home: Where we love is home, a place where our feet may leave, but never our heart.

Denotation: The referent that the word names; The most literal and limited meaning of a word or phrase. Connotation: Whatever is suggested beyond what is said; The emotive or affective component of a linguistic expression.

lion: fierce; wild; cruel; powerfulsnake: poison, death, disgusting, fearcrow: black, sorrow, bad luck

Denotation and Connotation

words that carry emotion honesty, courage, traitor, deceit love, hate, fear, joy, sorrow, damn, shit sincere, hypocritical, wonderful, skinny

words that do not carry emotion in, on, at, within so, but, since, because, though a, an, the he, she, my, mine book, lamp, desk, window, door add, subtract, swim, run, read

Words with/without Emotion

Connotative meaningNegative

There are 2,000 vagrants in the city.Neutral

There are 2,000 people with no fixed addresses in the city.

PositiveThere are 2,000 homeless in the city.

All three of these expressions refer to the same people, but they will invoke different emotive associations in the readers’ mind: a ‘vagrant’ is a public nuisance, while a homeless person is a worthy object of pity and charity.

Example: face

the front of the head

(Primary Meaning)

outward appearance

(Derived Meaning)

a person

(Derived Meaning)

self-respect

(Derived Meaning)

the surface of a thing

(Derived Meaning)

countenance

(Derived Meaning)

We can get the derived meanings by extension,

narrowing, analogy, transfer, etc.

P1: Words with/without emotion. Most words have connotative (emotive) meanings apart from denotative (literal) meanings.

P2: Words bearing the same idea have different shades of meaning, and the user of a language loads words with his own feelings.

P3: Words that have different denotation bear different flavors, --- commendatory, derogatory or neutral.

P4: Words of the same basic verbal symbol carry variant emotive charges.

Main Idea of Each Paragraph

1. Why does the author use “were” instead of “was”?

Because it is the subjunctive mood. It means the human mind is not a strictly logical device like a calculating machine.

Paragraph I

2. Why is the human mind unable to function like a calculating machine? In other words, What are the differences between the human mind and the calculating machine?

The human mind is unable to function like a calculating machine, because it is endowed with the ability to think as well as to feel, and our reason is prone to constant emotional interference.

Paragraph I

3. What would happen to a word if the human mind did indeed operate like a calculating machine, unaffected by emotion? (Take the word “cat” as example).

If human mind did indeed function like a calculating machine, wholly unaffected by feelings, it would deal with words simply as names of categories. For example “cat” would simply serve to denote the domesticated mammals or the whole range of predators, including lions, tiger, leopard and all members of cat family.

Paragraph I

4. Our response to a word is not always rational. Can you explain it by an example, take dog? (Does our emotional response to a word always agree with the nature of the thing or concept that word names? If not, please cite some examples to support your argument.)

Our emotional response to a word is not always rational. The dog, for instance, is regarded by many as man’s friend, and is preferred over all other animals in point of intelligence and companionship. In spite of this, to be called a dog is an insult to a person. Apparently, it is not the association with the genus of dogs that gives rise to a sense of insult, but rather the emotive charge that has acquired through use. Other examples: to compare a man to a bull or lion; a woman to a bird or butterfly, etc.

Paragraph I

5.What accounts for our irrational response for words? Take the words “friend”, “traitor”, “viper”, and “dove” as examples.

It is the strong feeling that keeps interfering with our perception of things. Due to the work of our emotion, our response to words is not always rational. The word “friend” for example, which simply denotes companion or an associate, has the connotation of loyalty or affection. And “traitor” connotes revulsion and contempt. “Dove” connotes peacefulness and gentleness. “Viper” connotes disgust.

Paragraph I

6.When does a word acquire an emotive value?

A word acquires an emotive meaning when human reaction to the word is more or less the same. In other word, it is the frequency and uniformity of our emotional response to a word that eventually gives the word an emotive meaning. The writer points out that the emotional meaning of a word is not determined by the individual, but the fairly general response to them.

Paragraph I

7.Translation:Whenever the users of a language evince a fairly uniform emotional response to a given word, that response becomes part of the connotation, therefore part of the standard meaning.

每当使用某种语言的人们对某个特定的词做出了比较一致的情感反应，这个反应就成为该词内涵的一部分，从而也就成为该词标准意义的一部分。

Paragraph I

8.Translate this sentence into Chinese and give some examples: There are nevertheless a good many that produce reactions

of various colors and shades, with voltages ranging from mild to knockout force.

但也有大量的词能够引起人们产生各种各样的带有感情色彩的反应，感受其微妙的差别，这种反应力度的大小不等，有的极为轻微，有的足以把人击昏。

You are silly, stupid, foolish, bullshit, dungheap. I dislike you, I hate you.

Paragraph I

2. Translate the following sentence into Chinese and explain “Watch your language”.

When someone says “Watch your language!” he is usually not attacking your right to refer to the thing (s) you are referring to, but only urging you to abstain from an expression that in itself, quite apart from its denotation and linguistic connotation, is offensive to his ear or eye.

当有人说：“注意你的用语”时，他通常并不是抨击你指称事物的权利，而是郑重地要求你避免使用本身就令他耳目不悦的表达方式，不管这个表达的外延和语言内涵如何。

Watch your language: You must be careful about what/how you say; You must be careful abut the choice of your words or expressions; Mind what you say and how you say it.

Paragraph II

3. Explain “words that snarl and words that purr”. Give some examples.

derogatory terms and commendatory terms; words that offend the ear and words that please the ear.

stupid --- innocent cunning --- clever skinny --- slender fat --- plump sweat --- perspire miserly --- thrifty notorious --- famous nosy --- curious conceited --- confident die --- pass away

Paragraph II

4. Explain the distinctions between “informer and informant”, “sweat and perspiration”, “selective service and draft”.

Paragraph II

5. Paraphrase: but the different words have different odors too, and the nose that is insensitive to the scent is apt to end up a punched nose; the ear that does not hear their harmonies and discords, a cauliflower ear.

The person who is insensitive to the stench contained in the word(s) is likely to get his nose punched (stricken) and the person who is deaf to the offense contained in the word(s) he uses is likely to get his ear disfigured by those who take offense at the word(s), in other words, his ear would end up a cauliflower ear – a smashed ear.

It implies that Different words carry different degree of emotional charge, positive or negative; therefore, inappropriate use of certain words may cause embarrassment and serious result.

Paragraph II

1. hot-blooded --- passionate; quick-tempered warmed-blooded --- (of animals) having a constant blood temperature cold-blooded --- (of animals) having a blood temperature which varies with the temperature of the surroundings

Paragraph III

2. What do the terms “thou, art, dost” mean respectively in modern English? Find out the rules for using verbs from the examples contained in the paragraph.

Thou=you (subject case) [thee=you (object case) thy=your (possessive case)] art=are dost=do Shall I compare thee to a summer day? Thou art more lovely

and more temperate. knowest/accompaniest/consort’st/dost/canst/didst

Paragraph III

4. Is it effective for the author to cite Romeo and Juliet in the essay? Why or why not?

Well-known and typical and impressive.

Paragraph III

1. Different forms of the same basic verbal symbol will carry variant emotive charges.

e. g. informant – informer Manly – mannish – manlike Womanly – womanish – womanlike Childish – childlike imaginary – imaginative sensible – sensitive respectful – respectable honorable – honorary temporal – temporary affected – affectionate

Paragraph IV

1. Who is the ideal reader of the article? The ideal reader may be students of

linguistics (especially semantics) and philology or those dictionary-compilers.

Reader and Purpose

2. What is the purpose for writing the article? All that has been said in the selection is meant

to give force to the argument that it is essential for the learner of a language to gain knowledge of the emotive as well as denotative component of meaning.

Reader and Purpose

1. Illustration (or example). Illustrations may be brief and numerous; may be relatively long an

d detailed. Not every illustration requires a for instance or a for example. In citing an example, for explicitness’s sake, the writer should announce; if examples are frequently cited, and the reader is constantly prepared for them, or if an example is expected from the context, then the writer may left it stand on its own feet.

The illustrations used in each paragraph P1: love, hate, joy, sorrow, fear, awe, lamp, book, read, subtract, t

hrough. P2: a rose or a skylark’s song, a dungheap or a subway train’s wh

eel-screech, an informer and an informant, selective service and draft, seart and perspiration, a punched nose and a cauliflower ear.

P3: an episode from Romeo and Juliet. P4: manly, mannish, manlike, womanly, womanish, womanlike, chi

ldish, childlike.

Writing Technique

2. Comparison Metaphor: voltages (15); a punched nose

(37); a cauliflower ear (38). Simile: like a calculating machine (1-2).

Writing Technique

3. The subordinate constructions precede the main clause. Sentences generally gain emphasis when the subordinate

constructions precede the main clause. Examples in the paragraphs.

If the human mind…(1) While the bulk of the vocabulary…(11) When someone…(25) When hot-blooded… (39) Although the minstrel…(51) If you want to…(59)

Writing Technique

1. How has the writer linked the beginning of the second paragraph with the first? The third with the second? The fourth with the third?

p2-p1: using the transitional adverbial “not that”;

p3-p2: citing another example; p4-p3: using the transitional adverb

“sometimes”.

Organization

2. Paragraph 3 is closely unified with each sentence relative to the same key term. What is the term and how is each sentence related with the term?

The key term is consort. Sentence 1: introduction of the word ‘consort’; Sentence 2: Mercutio’s reaction of the word ‘consort’; Sentence 3: the consequence of the misuse of the word ‘consort’; Sentence 4: the connotation of the word ‘consort’ in modern English.

Organization

The main point argued in this selection is that certain words have an emotive meaning, which is quite different from their literal meaning.

Professor Salomon ascribes the emotive component of meanings to people’s emotional response to the words. He points out that the connotative meaning of certain words is not determined by individual reaction to them, but by a fairly uniform response.

Then he goes on to demonstrate that our emotional response to a word itself is not always in agreement with our response to the things or ideas the word names and that it is not always easy to tell one from the other.

Another point of interests he brings up is that sometimes different derivations of the same stem may carry variant emotive charges.

The author gives forces to the argument that it is essential for the learners of a language to gain thorough knowledge of the emotive as well as the denotative component of meaning.

The ideal reader may be student of linguistics (especially semantics) or those dictionary-compilers.

A Review of the Emotive Component of Meaning