Topic 10 (session A) - Prose analysis > Bilgewater: Lexis > Task D

Bilgewater: Lexis

Task D - Denotation vs connotation

We do not have time to examine all the repetitions in the passage (the reason for the repetition of words like 'interview' 'principal' and 'candidate' is obvious enough), but in this task we will effectively look at a couple of repetitions mentioned in Task C.

In addition to looking for clearly evaluative lexis, when we examine passages we can look for words which have marked positive or negative connotations. Two different words can denote/refer to the same thing, but with very different connotations. For example, the three words 'interview', 'interrogation' and 'chat', could refer to the same situation, but in very different ways in terms of connotation, neutrally, negatively and positively. It can also be the case that the same word can turn up in different contexts with rather different connotations, depending on the words it 'collocates' with (what words which are near to it in the text).

To see how this works in the passage we are examining, go through it looking for the words 'old' and 'cold' (you may have noticed that, interestingly, we put these two words in both the negative and the positive columns in our answer to Task C, which itself suggests that something odd is going on). Note the immediate context they occur in each case, and try to work out whether the connotations involved are positive or negative, and why.

Our answer

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