HANOI UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

---SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES---



ACADEMIC ANALYSIS IN TERMS OF DENOTATION AND

CONNOTATION

Group 9 – Class 124098 ID

Đặng Thế Doanh 20183050

Phạm Hoài Nam 20183130

Nguyễn Thị Kim Oanh 20183144

Nguyễn Thu Trang 20183172

Hanoi, June 2021

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Our assignment cannot be successfully completed without the support of these following
people. We want to express our deepest appreciation to our teacher, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Nghia.
His practical suggestions contributing to the whole topic have helped us a lot during the process
of accomplishing our final essay. We would like to extend our sincere thanks to our friends for
their precious comments, it would be a deficiency of our essay without their backup.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT (Oanh) 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS (Oanh) 3

I. INTRODUCTION (Oanh) 4
II. THEORICAL BACKGROUND 4
1. Definition (Oanh) 4
2. Types (Doanh) 4
3. Application (Doanh) 6
4. Relation (Doanh) 6

5. Differences ( Doanh, Trang)

7
6. Specific example analysis: denotation and connotation in song lyrics 7
(Trang)

III. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS (Nam) 9

1. The complexity of writing poetry 9

2. Application in learning English process (in creating poetry) 10

IV. CONCLUSION (Oanh) 11

REFERENCES (Oanh) 13
Writing part allocation 15

Language is one of the most important cultural factors that people use to communicate
with each other. It consists of many words that are a form of expression that has meaning. There
are main principal types of describing the meanings, the first type is the denotative meaning and
the second one is connotative meaning (Rababah, 2015). Understanding these meanings play an
important role in everyday life, especially in communication and learning English process as this
relates to cultural issues. If you do not clearly understand the meaning in a certain cultural
context, you will misunderstand the speaker/author's meaning or not achieve high

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communication efficiency. This is the reason why we chose the topic: “Academic analysis of
connotation and denotation”.  In this paper, there are three main parts: the definition, the
relationship between connotation and denotation, and their implication in the learning English
process to create poetry.  

2.1. Definition of denotation and connotation

Firstly, knowing well about the definition and characteristics of connotation and
denotation is one of the prior things that must be addressed when studying denotation and
connotation. First, there are many definitions given by a variety of information sources; however,
the most popular and precise definition is that denotation is the meaning of a word, as defined in
a dictionary [ CITATION Jon \l 1033 ]. For example, the word "dog" in the Oxford Learner’s
Dictionaries is defined as an animal with four legs and a tail, often kept as a pet or trained for
work, for example, hunting or guarding buildings. On the contrary, connotation refers to the
emotions and associations that link to words and expand beyond their proper definitions. A
misunderstanding can rapidly change the literal meaning or tone of a message. Feelings evoked
by "mom" and "mother" are typical examples of connotation. They have the same meaning, but
the affection is distinct.

Second, it is quite challenging to classify denotation into smaller sorts, but it is much
easier to determine which areas it is most used in. Regarding the characteristics of detonation, it
is easy to see that it is the literal meaning of the word. It is the first thing people think of when it
comes to denotation. And people also use denotation in literature and speaking. However, when
taking a closer look at symbols, characters, especially characters in mathematics, we can realize
they are also a form of denotation. For example, minus is " -", plus is "+", “@” is at, “% “is
percent, and so on. This is the second extent of denotation usage: in a set of symbols and
concepts in a certain field that a word has only one literal meaning. It is defined by a language
community, people do not have to infer the meaning or what is hidden behind the words, simply,
it is the most obvious and superficial layer of meaning of a word.

2.2.2. Types of connotation

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 In contrast to denotation, connotation is more complicated, people have to use more
knowledge and associations to think about connotation. There are three main types of
connotations: positive, negative, and neutral connotations.

a. Positive connotation

The first type, positive connotation. It is also called a favorable connotation. The typical
characteristic of this type is that the words give a positive impact to the person they refer to. For
example, a pair of words: challenging and difficult. It is easy to realize similarities and the
differences between two words. They are all referring to barriers or obstacles when we try to
achieve something. However, the word “challenging”, it is positive, that means the probability
we can achieve our goal is higher than when we use the word “difficult”. Two words may be
understood better if they are put in a particular sentence. Although this mission is quite
challenging, I believe I can do it. And the second sentence, this exercise is difficult, it may be
beyond my ability. Through two examples, differentiating the first types of connotations is not a
hard task.

b. Negative connotation

The next type, negative connotation, is also called unfavorable connotation. This type
describes the negative qualities, disabilities, or disrespect of a person. For example, the word
“nosy”, according to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries, is defined: nosy is too interested in
things, especially those that are not involving you. The word that has similar meanings with nosy
is curious. However, the difference is in the tone, the intention that speakers would like to
convey. Noisy may annoy other people due to your over-care while curious means positively
when you try to learn or figure out something new. Another example is exploit and exploit,
exploit means we overuse something or someone, and surely it is a negative word. In contrast,
with the word “employ”, the employer often pays workers equally for their effort.

c. Neutral connotation

The third type is a neutral connotation. Typically, they are common and widely used.
People neither developed a positive nor negative connotation because it is more controllable for
them not to ruin their relationships by their careless words.

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 d. Formal and informal connotation

The last type is formal and informal connotation. As its name refers, we use formal
connotation when you talk to the elderly or a person in a position of authority. And with informal
connotation, it is either neutral or favorable. Some sorts of words that are often used are slang
words, conversations between people, they can call each other by their nicknames.

2.3. Application of denotation and connotation

People use denotation and connotation depending on their purpose. With denotation,
people use this expression to express the meaning in the most straightforward way. This helps
readers as well as listeners grasp the meaning of words in the fastest and easiest way. However,
in literature, denotation is sometimes a disadvantage, so people sometimes prefer to use
connotation. Because connotation forces the reader to think logically to find the meaning behind
the word as well as the sentence, and depending on the context, the same word can have different
meanings. And an important application of connotation is in advertising and in headlines.
Sometimes, the author lets the reader know the meaning of a word, but the hidden purpose
behind it, the reader has to read the whole article to be able to deduce the meaning, and it is
called ambiguity. It is an application with a very practical function of connotation in daily life.
For a better understanding, with the headline “Nubian being noticed”, people understand every
single word in terms of its meaning. However, it is difficult to guess the author's intention in
choosing that kind of title. Nubian refers to a group of people living in Nubia, which is a country
sharing the border with Egypt. Their country is famous for the large gold reserves. With the title
"Nubian being noticed", the author caught the reader's attention by raising their curiosity about
whether it is good or bad news. (Reham, 2018).

2.4. Relationship and differences between connotation and denotation

2.4.1. Relationship between denotation and connotation

Connotation and denotation are inextricably linked. The denotation of a term is

determined by its connotation, but the connotation of a term is not determined just by its
denotation. It is possible to understand a term's connotation without understanding its denotation.
People understand the meaning of the word "unicorn" in the sense of comprehending its

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connotation, even if there are no unicorns in the world. The term "unicorn" refers to a horse-like
creature with one long horn on its forehead. So, even though no one has ever seen a unicorn,
anybody who knows this understands the meaning of the phrase. 

2.4.2. Differences between denotation and connotation

The distinction between denotative and connotative meaning is that every word has both
a denotation and a connotation. The denotation of a word refers to its most basic or specific
meaning. In contrast, a connotation is an idea that is suggested or associated with a word. The
differences between denotative and connotative meaning are denotative meaning is a real
meaning based on a dictionary. It means it interprets a word, phrase, or sentence according to a
dictionary. Meanwhile, connotation is about getting a meaning from a word, phrase, or sentence
according to suggestions, or what we associate the word with those goes beyond its formal
definitions. Neglecting a word's underneath meanings can cause your goals to clash with your
word choice, etc.

From the distinction above, we can briefly draw a synthesis for the differences between
denotative and connotative meaning. Denotation is basically a literal meaning that is based on a
dictionary. In other words, denotation describes the definition of a term, word, phrase or sentence
according to dictionary meaning. Meanwhile, connotation is an association of a term.
Connotative meaning is a meaning of a word, phrase or sentence that is associated beyond formal
definitions. The descriptions of connotation can be affected by emotion, mood, experience…
among other factors.

3. Specific example analysis

      This part is a specific analysis of the application of connotation and denotation in song lyrics
(Sari, A., & Kusumawardhani, P.,2016). In this part, a song chosen for the further analysis is
titled “Drag me down” by One Direction. The message of this song is easy to understand: love is
stronger than anything else.   In this analysis, the hidden message stored in the song lyrics will be
revealed by the application of connotative and denotative meaning.

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“I've got fire for a heart (1)

I'm not scared of the dark (2)

You've never seen it look so easy

I got a river for a soul

And baby you're a boat (5)

Baby you're my only reason

If I didn't have you there would be nothing left

The shell of a man who could never be his best

If I didn't have you, I'd never see the sun (9)

You taught me how to be someone, yeah.

All my life

You stood by me

When no one else was ever behind me

All these lights

They can't blind me (15)

With your love, nobody can drag me down.”

In the first lyrics line “I've got fire for a heart”, there is a word “fire” (noun). From the
denotative perspective, “fire” has the literal sense of the burning state which produces flames
including heat, light and smoke. Therefore, the denotative meaning of the lyric “I've got fire for a
heart” means “I have fire and I want to give it to a heart”. However, in this lyric, “fire” has
connotative meaning – an emotional feeling about a word. The word “fire” cannot be understood
as an event or occurrence, but it is actually a description of the intensity of love. In this case, the
whole sentence “I've got fire for a heart” can be understood as “I have fire instead of a heart”.

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This describes how much he/she wants to show passion to the lover and this feeling of love is
intense as “fire” and he/she is very strong of it.

   Next, in the second lyric line “I’m not scared of the dark” , the word “dark” (adjective)
is put under consideration. According to Cambridge dictionary, “dark” is the condition of having
little or no light (denotation). Yet, the word “dark” in “I’m not scared of the dark” is considered
with connotative meaning. The connotation exceeds the meaning, the condition of someone
having a problem, he/she “is not scared” of this primal fear (the dark) because he/she is not
afraid of taking risks that might hurt.

In the fifth line of the lyric “and baby you're a boat”, we have a word “boat” (noun). The
direct meaning (denotation) of it is a ship, a small vehicle for travelling on water. But in this
song concept, “boat” has the connotative meaning of the lover. This is an expression of someone
who needs a lover by their side to support him/her.

 Next in the ninth line “If I didn't have you, I'd never see the sun”, “sun” (noun) is
considered. “Sun” has the simple definition (denotation) of a star which is located at the center of
our solar system. However, the conclusion of the word “sun” in the song lyrics “If I did not have
you, I’d never see the sun” has a connotative meaning. From the lyrics, “sun” represents the
lover giving him/her support as well as spirit, love, motivation. Therefore, without the lover,
there would be no inspiration for him/her to work hard to achieve dreams.

 “They can't blind me” in the fifteenth line, we will pay attention to the word “blind”
(verb). According to Cambridge dictionary, “blind” means causing someone to be unable to see,
permanently or temporarily. In the song concept, the denotation is corresponding to the true lyric
meaning. The lyrics claim that these lights (line 14) cannot blind him/her, in other words, prevent
him/her from seeing what is important in life. He or she cannot get lost because of the lover
beside who he/she can lean on.

In short, in the song “Drag me down” by One Direction, the dominant meaning between
connotative and denotative meaning is connotative meaning. Through the analysis, the meanings
of the words can be easily caught, whether true or implied meanings are used, since the
difference between connotation and denotation is clear.
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 One of the biggest impacts of connotation and detenotation as noted above is to create a
song. However, most of them, poems are the hardest category to compose due to their
complexity, coherence, and abstractness to imagine. It is notable when it also requires strictly
about form, rhythm, rhyme, word choice. The author relies on the tool of connotation and
detonation to transfer the meaning as he wants to transfer to us. my analysis will discuss 2
questions: 1. Why is writing poetry complicated ? 2. How can we apply the detonation and
connotation in our learning English process, especially in creating your own poetry?

First, poetry is a condensed literary work that is abridged, given a rhythm, has a cohesive
tone, and employs figurative language. Poetry is a literary work that creatively and arranged
expresses a poet's ideas and feelings by focusing all the energy of language via physical and
mental frameworks, according to Waluyo in Najich and Suyitno (2019:95). Line poetry is
defined as a main experience, interpretation in rhythmic language, and it can also be regarded as
a form of language that expressed more and more intensely than what the language said on a
daily basis (Pradopo in Supriyono et al, 2018:106). Students who are learning to write poetry are
required to compose poetry according to the rules of writing poetry.

A poetry which is considered to be excellent is one that transports the reader into the
world depicted by the poet. A poet is someone who writes poetry based on their life experiences
and expertise. Based on the poet's imagination who was first obtained when the reader reads
poetry is an experience, therefore the more people who read and love poetry, the more
experience gained and enjoyed (Tarigan in Najich and Suyitno 2019:95). This is a key factor to
distinguish and realize the uniqueness of one poem than many other outstanding poems.

Writing a poem becomes not only coherent but also complicated because it has many
types of purpose. Firstly, it is assignment purpose: this writing is beneficial to the writer's
assignment purpose, such as papers, reports, or essays. Secondly, aesthetic purpose: this writing
may be used to communicate someone's ideas in aesthetic forms, such as literary works such as
prose, drama, and poetry, as well as music. Thirdly, information purpose: this writing provides
the reader with the most recent information or news, such as newspapers, magazines, and
tabloids. Finally, creative purpose: it is basically pouring someone's creative thoughts or thinking

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and improving and training someone's talent or passion in specific areas, such as writing song,
book, novel, film script, and poetry.

Second, anyone who wants to learn English for creating a poem should utilize denotation
and connotation since their consistency along his work; and with the way to improve writing
style. Connotation plays a vital function in language, such as in poetry writing. According to
Brinton in Hartina (2017:2), connotation refers to words that have literal meanings or denotations
but also provoke imaginations, sentiments, attitudes, or views. It may be deduced that someone
or a poet must use denotative and connotative meaning in their writing styles when composing
poetry.

In my viewpoint, denotation and connotation are important elements in our poetry

writing. Because it relates to word choice — the language we choose to describe thoughts, ideas,
and pictures — is an important aspect of poetry. Denotation and connotation help us to select
words that add depth and significance to our poems. Some words have more than one definition.
Most authors will use the simplest term with the most popular definition. They may state the
investigator ran through the trees if they wish to depict a detective chasing a suspect through a
woodland. A poet, on the other hand, will seek for a term that may be utilized more fully: the
detective dashed through the trees.
 
For instance, the term sprint works because it implies "running quickly," but the word
dart enriches its meaning because it refers to a fast run, a spear - like weapon and a tiny shot at
the target. All these concepts emphasize what happens when a detective chases a suspect.
Although the poets are not unique to poetry (in all kinds of writing they are present), they tend to
best use denotations and connotations since poetry plays a central role in the choice of language
and words. Poets spend an excessive amount of time working on word selections to find
language which precisely communicates all they want to say.

Creating a poem is a way of improving your writing skill because it also requires a fluent
combination of word choice from detonation and connotation with many literary devices: simile,
personification, metaphor, hyperbole. With simile, a poet uses this literary device to emphasize

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the similarities between their characters, for example, he is funny as a barrel of monkeys. The
denotative meaning is not the same but when you imagine and evoke, you can see all living
creatures including human, animals have similar feelings inside. It is happy, angry, ... And this
sentence is expected to emphasize his sense of humor to make everyone feel funny. With
personification, the way to make everything except humans have human characteristics. Poets in
any field especially in Romanticism period, even the modern poets use this device a lot to make
their poem become interesting and soulful. For example, "two sunflowers move into the yellow
room" by Nancy Willard. This sentence is understood by connotative meaning: those two
flowers are very lively, soulful with all the personal attributes.  It is a mistake if you do not
mention metaphor, a poet usually uses metaphor in their work in order to express something to
audiences in a subtle way. For instance, a sea of knowledge does not mean anything if you
comprehend it in a denotative way because there is no connection between sea and knowledge.
However, you can get it if we translate it into a connotative way. This sentence means someone
who is well-educated and has a wide range of knowledge. Finally, hyperbole is quite important
in poetry because poets can depend on it to increase the level of their targeted object’s
characteristics. For example, “as I walked out one evening”, by W.H. Auden, this hyperbole is
used to express his forever love. 
 
Writers outside the field of poetry may be able to gain a lot from poetic devices such as
denotations and connotations and use them to improve their own works day by day, whether they
create any types of fiction, romance, nonfiction or whatever. After learning detonation and
connotation for a long time, I have created some poems and applied the function of detonation
and connotation to every aspect of life, in learning English or in daily social situations. Even if
you are just a basic learner, this can be also useful for you to take a big step towards achieving
your English goals.

In conclusion, denotative meaning has only one meaning which is based on the dictionary
meaning while connotative meaning is a feeling or idea that is suggested by a particular word in
addition to the literal meaning. This analysis is useful in the limitation for Academic fields, for
all English learners who desire to find the interest of detonation and connotation, to see the depth
of meaning in speech, literature, poetry… Furthermore, with the short analysis based on our

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experience, this analysis is just targeted on a particular field, in some techniques to write poetry,
to comprehend the figurative meaning under a song, or to make the same analysis within 500
words. If it excesses over 500 words, the analysis should be in further research under larger scale
due to the specific object that limitation of our analysis has. We really appreciate your devotion
to fulfill our working. As we know, each word can have one or more connotation meanings
based on certain situations and how someone gets them. Both denotation and connotation help
the reader or listener to find the interpretation and metaphorical meaning of a word to help
people understand each other better and achieve a deep level of communication, especially in
learning English process.

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 References

Afghari, A., & Darani, L. H. (2012, February 1). World Englishes: how differently Canadian
English Native Speakers and Iranian EFL Make Yes/no Question Variants. International
Journal of English Linguistics, II(1). doi:10.5539/ijel.v2n1p177

Ayer, J. (n.d.). Connotation vs Denotation. Retrieved from StoryboardThat:

https://www.storyboardthat.com/articles/e/connotation-vs-denotation

Boberg, C. (2016, February 29). Canadian English. (C. Cooper, Editor) Retrieved from
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/canadian-english

Brooke, J. (2005, February 15). Global Policy Forum. Retrieved from archive.globalpolicy.org:
https://archive.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/cultural/2005/0215mongolia.htm

Bryram, M. (2006, October). Languages and Identities. Council of Europe.

Cruz Aponte, Z. (n.d.). Retrieved from ingeniosupr.com: shorturl.at/evwVZ

Crystal, D. (2003). Englsih as a global language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Cambridge University Press. (n.d.). Blind. In the Cambridge dictionary. Retrieved June 27, 2020

from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/blind

Cambridge University Press. (n.d.). Blind, Dark. In the Cambridge dictionary. Retrieved June 27,

2020 from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/dark

Denis, D. (2013). The social meaning of EH in Canadian English. Canadian Linguistics

Association.

Dollinger, S., & Clarke, S. (2012). On the autonomy and homogeneity of Canadian English.
World Englishes, 449-466.

Ethier, S. (2017, November 14). Why Canadian spelling is different? Retrieved from
shorturl.at/mnN47

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Gold, E. (2010). Canadian Eh? From Eh to Zd. . Canadian English Linguistic Reader.

Kachru, B. B. (1985). Standard, codification and sociolinguistic realism: The English language
in the outer circle. (I. R. Widdowson, Ed.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lessard-Clouston, M. (2000). Canadian English: Background, Features and Resources. TESL

Ontario Contact, 26(I), 11-17. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269997388_Canadian_English_Background_Fe
atures_and_Resources

One Direction, Drag Me Down (Official Video), 21. 8. 2015. Retrieved June 27, 2020 from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwgf3wmiA04

Pratt, T. K. (1993). The Hobgoblin of Canadian Spelling: Focus on Canada. (S. Clarke, Ed.)
John Benjamins Pubishing Company. doi:10.1075/veaw.g11

Robson, M. (2013). The English Effect. British Council. Retrieved from

https://www.britishcouncil.org/

Sari, A., & Kusumawardhani, P. (2016). Denotative and Connotative Meaning in One direction’s

Songs Lyric: A Semantic Perspective. ELT-Lectura, 3(2). Retrieved June 27, 2020 from
https://doi.org/10.31849/elt-lectura.v3i2.479

Supriyono, S. e. (2018). Jurnal Penelitian Pendidikan Bahasa dan Sastra Indonesia.

https://doi.org/10.2220/JG.2018.V4i1.2460. Retrieved from
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Troper, H. (2013, April 22). Immigrant to Canada. Retrieved from

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/immigration

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Writing part allocation

Nguyễn Thị Kim Oanh Acknowledgement, Table of contents

Introduction, Definition- Paragraph 1, 2,

3

“Language is one of the most important

cultural factors…. They have the same
meaning, but the affection is distinct.”

Conclusion – Paragraph 29

References

Đăng Thế Doanh Types, Application, Relation, Differences

Paragraph 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 11

“In contrast to denotation,…. anybody

who knows this understands the meaning
of the phrase.”

Nguyễn Thu Trang Differences, Specific example

Paragraph 12, 13,14, 15, 16, 17,18, 19

“From the distinction above,… since the

difference between connotation and
denotation is clear.”

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Phạm Hoài Nam Practical implication

Paragraph 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26,

27,28

“One of the biggest impacts of

connotation and denotation….. you to
take a big step towards achieving your
English goals.”

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