Meanings

THE dictionary meaning of a word is its denotation. A denotation is the objective relationship between a word and the physical reality it stands for. For example, the denotation of spectacles is the object which balances on one’s nose in front of the eyes. A denotation is the lexical meaning of a word, which everyone would agree with.

Connotation refers to the personal aspect of lexical meaning — often, the emotional associations which a word bring to mind. Spectacles may mean doom for a young girl, for she considers them burdensome and unaesthetic. A pair of spectacles may stand for a corrective device for an optician or they may mean money for him. A young scholar may look at them as a symbol of learning. Every word would have different connotations for various individuals, as per their life-experiences since people do have common experiences, many words would have connotations shared by many people. City, for instance, would have connotations like bustle, crowds, din, dust, excitement and pollution.

A word highly charged with connotations is a loaded word. The language of politics and religion is full of such loaded expressions: freedom, democracy, revolutionary, capitalist, bureaucracy, politician, secularism, orthodoxy, dogma, fundamentalism. In a group of synonyms, it is difficult to distinguish between words in terms of their denotation, but their connotation is noticeably different. For example, car, automobile, buggy, banger, bus, hot rod, jalopy, racer and so on.

Bertrand Russel showed how connotations can convey personal attitude when he gave a set of three sentences on a BBC programme: I am firm. You are obstinate. He is pig-headed. Many such triplets can be devised: slender/thin/skin, frank/blunt/insolent and overweight/plump/fat.

The American writer on semantics, S.I. Hayakawa, distinguished between snarl words and purr words. Snarl words, (negative or unfavourable) are words like skulk, nag, exploitation and cheat. Purr words (positive or favourable) are words like enterprise, colourful, jolly and green.

Tap-root

Tadbhav words come from Sanskrit but through some regional language like Pali or Prakrit. They have changed along the way. Examples are bhai, behan, naak and kaan. Deshaj words come from languages other than Sanskrit, e.g. garhbarh and jagmag. Videshi words are words taken from foreign languages like Arabic, Persian, French and English. For instance, allah, namaz, kameez, aspataal and rail.

— Deepti