Diction  &  Etymology,  Denotation  &  Connotation  

Persuasion  and  argumentation  depend,  of  course,  on  language—the  vehicle  for  idea  generation,  thought  transmission,  and  belief  promotion.    But  in  order  to  persuade,  the  language  has  to  effective—clear,  meaningful,  appropriate.    Diction  is  the  term  we  use  to  describe  word  choice.    Problem:  lots  of  words  from  which  to  choose.    

   The  Oxford  English  Dictionary  (OED)  

Basically,  the  mother  of  all  dictionaries,  the  dictionary  from  whence  cometh  all  others.    It  offers  word  histories  and  origins—or  etymologies.  

 

The  Oxford  English  Dictionary  (OED)  is  widely  regarded  as  the  accepted  authority  on  the  English  language.  It’s  an  unsurpassed  guide  to  the  meaning,  history,  and  pronunciation  of  600,000  words—  past  and  present—from  across  the  English-­‐speaking  world.  

As  a  historical  dictionary,  the  OED  is  very  different  from  those  of  current  English,  in  which  the  focus  is  on  present-­‐day  meanings.  You’ll  still  find  these  in  the  OED,  but  you'll  also  find  the  history  of  individual  words,  and  of  the  language—traced  through  3  million  quotations,  from  classic  literature  and  specialist  periodicals  to  films  scripts  and  cookbooks.    The  OED  originated  more  than  150  years  ago.  Today,  the  dictionary  is  in  the  process  of  its  first  major  revision.  Updates  revise  and  extend  the  OED  at  regular  intervals,  each  time  subtly  adjusting  our  image  of  the  English  language.    http://www.oed.com.byui.idm.oclc.org/view/Entry/122273  

To  Diction  and  Beyond  .  .  .    Obviously,  many  words  have  differing  definitions—some  glaring,  others  more  subtle.    Even  synonyms  aren’t  exactly,  well  .  .  .  exact—they  can  have  itty  bitty  nuances  of  distinction.    There  are  very  few  perfectly  interchangeable  synonyms  in  the  English  language.    And  our  language  is  continually  expanding  as  we  adopt  or  create  new  words.    In  contrast,  the  French  language,  and  its  guardians,  generally  resist  this  tendency.    

     music  player  =  baladeur    Plus,  words  evolve:  some  meanings  fade  away,  other  meanings  come  into  being.    The  study  of  word  origin/history  is  called  etymology.    To  complicate  matters,  many  words  have  denotative  and  connotative  differences  in  meaning.    Rhetoric  takes  advantage  of  both,  although  most  rhetoricians  agree  that  connotation  is  the  more  powerful  and  persuasive  of  the  two.    Denotation—refers  to  the  direct  relationship  between  a  term  and  the  object,  idea,  or  action  it  designates.    Denotation  =  rational,  objective,  literal,  intellectual,  or  cognitive  meaning;  a  word’s  explicit  meaning.  

 Connotation—refers  to  the  emotive,  affective,  or  associational  aspect  of  a  term,  the  commonly  understood  subjective,  cultural  “baggage”  that  it  carries.    A  connotation  is  frequently  described  as  either  positive  or  negative,  with  regard  to  its  pleasing  or  displeasing  emotional  connection.  For  example,  a  stubborn  person  may  be  described  as  being  either  strong-­‐willed  or  pig-­‐headed;  although  these  have  the  same  literal  meaning  (stubborn),  strong-­‐willed  connotes  admiration  for  the  level  of  someone’s  will  (a  positive  connotation),  while  pig-­‐headed  connotes  frustration  in  dealing  with  someone  (a  negative  connotation).    Dictionaries  and  thesauruses  generally  exclude  references  to  connotative  meaning;  such  is  “not  their  job.”    

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Assume  Scotland’s  national  poet,  Robert  Burns,  gives  Jean  Armour  (his  wife)  a  Hallmark  card,  which  reads:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGoNb9JUhVo  

     

The  denotation  of  this  example  would  be  a  red  rose  with  a  green  stem.    Jean  would  not  interpret  the  poem’s  primary  metaphor  as  “my  love  is  like  ‘any  of  the  wild  or  cultivated,  usually  prickly-­‐stemmed,  pinnate-­‐leaved,  showy-­‐flowered  shrubs  of  the  genus  rosa.’”    She’d  get  the  connotation,  that  the  rose  is  a  symbol  of  passion  and  love  –  this  is  what  the  rose  represents.  ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________    Euphemisms  are  agreed  upon  connotations,  ways  of  softening  certain  words  or  phrases  that  otherwise  sound  or  fell  harsh.    Consider  the  following:    

   “bereft  of  life”  “dearly  departed”  “deceased”  “no  longer  with  us”  “passed  away”  “resting  in  peace”  “in  a  better  world”  “God  took  him”  “gone  home”  

“biting  the  biscuit”  “game  over”  “in  the  bone  zone”  “in  the  crisper”  “flatlined”  “bought  the  pine  condo”  “reformatted”  “kicked  the  oxygen  habit”  “tends  toward  a  state  of  chemical  equilibrium”  

 

   

   

   All  of  this  adds  up  to  endless  options  when  it  comes  to  diction.    

               number  of  words  +          multiple  definitions  +   continuous  expansion  +              constant  evolution  +              varied  connotation  _____________________  =    

     

Still  .  .  .  

“The  difference  between  the  right  word  and  the  almost  right  word  is  the  difference  between  lightning  and  a  lightning  bug.”    —Mark  Twain  

Stupid  lasts  forever.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_neu5UcGU3I  

Jack  Kennedy.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ5CIkSlUFI  

Jaws—the  Indianapolis  speech.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9S41Kplsbs  

Maggie  Smith  Poem  Recitation  (Union  Bank  Switzerland)  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhg2OtLO-­‐qA  

Wesley  &  Buttercup  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGZalfcrwSU  

     

“The  flower  that  blooms  in  adversity  is  the  most  rare  and  beautiful  of  all.”