The denotational aspect of lexical meaning is the part of lexical meaning
which establishes correlation between the name and the object, phenomenon,
process or characteristic feature of concrete reality (or thought as such), which is
denoted by the given word. The term ‘denotational’ is derived from the English
word to denote which means ‘be a sign of’ or ‘stand as a name or symbol for’. For
instance, the denotational meaning of booklet is ‘a small thin book that gives
information about something’.
It is through the denotational aspect of meaning that the bulk of information is
conveyed in the process of communication.
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The denotational aspect of lexical
meaning expresses the notional content of a word. The denotational aspect is the
component of the lexical meaning that makes communication possible.
The connotational aspect of lexical meaning is the part of meaning which
reflects the attitude of the speaker towards what he speaks about. Connotation
conveys additional information in the process of communication.
Connotation includes:
– the emotive charge is one of the objective semantic features proper to words as
linguistic units that forms part of the connotational component of meaning, for
example, daddy as compared to father.
– evaluation, which may be positive or negative, for instance, clique (a small
group of people who seem unfriendly to other people) as compared to group (a set
of people);
– imagery, for example, to wade – to walk with an effort (through mud, water or
anything that makes progress difficult). The figurative use of the word gives rise to
another meaning, which is based on the same image as the first – to wade through a book; 13
Alba-Juez L, Larina TV (2018) Language and emotion: discourse-pragmatic perspectives. Russ J Linguist
22(1):9–37.
