Connotation vs. Denotation

Whether you can wrap your mind around it or not, the "connotation" of a word is actually more important as well as more "meaningful" (I love perfectly placed puns) when speaking and writing. I am not arguing that knowing what a word means and using it correctly, the dictionary or the societally accepted definition, is not crucial to speaking and writing, but getting to the grittiness of human existence and composing pleasant and persuasive speech or writing relies heavily on the understanding of how words make people feel and on what imagery words construct inside someone's mind.

As a teacher I have come across many a students' writing where they have used the correct denoted word, but the chosen word lacked the "emotion" or "image" needed to create a successful piece of writing. Some argue connotation is not appropriate in academic writing, only belonging to fictional or other types of casual ramblings, but connotation, unknowningly sometimes, creates the base for a writer's tone, whether they are attempting to pencil the next great novel or compose an essay on the side effects and benefits of the newest experimental drug. This importance is clearly demonstrated when writing is translated from one language to another, because poor translators rarely take into account connotation, usually unaware of the nuances of the language they are translating, and so the translated text reads choppily and bulky, leaving the reader in a land of confusion and frustration. Connotation differs from language to language, culture to culture, even geographic areas relatively close to each other, so one might even argue context is even more important than connotation, but that is an argument for another time.

And do not ruffle my feathers about when people try to use examples of metaphors as the difference between connotation and denotation. Sometimes a well crafted metaphor (or other type of literary comparison) incorporates the use of specific connotation, but usually these comparisons are used to transfer characteristics of the items being compared (and yes, sometimes the characteristics being compared could be feelings, but taking something literally is not an example of denotation; it is an example of not understanding the figurative language used).

Okay, so enough of my ramblings. Here are the explanations of these two words:

CONNOTATION

the ideas, attitudes, feelings (such as "icky" or "warm", which are not emotions), and emotions elicited from a word

DENOTATION

the specific, exact, and concrete meaning of a word (basically, the dictionary definition)