Denote and Connote ...

[jessica_de_milo]

... because when you're a literature scholar (aspiring or established) you care about such nonsense (but consistently practice forgetting it):

Usage Note: Denote and connote are often confused because both words have senses that entail signification. Denote means "to signify directly or literally" and describes the relation between the word and the

Comments

[clowe]

I'm an English major and an avid reader, and I don't think I even knew connote was a word. Good to know! So denote would be the quite literal translation or definition of the word. Using an example similar to yours, mountain would denote a large land formation jutting up, whereas mountain would connote an immovable force or maybe someone incredibly stoic?

[jessica_de_milo]

Hehe. I had a professor last fall include it on a list of terms we were supposed to know (along with metaphor, simile, alliteration and such) but (while his exams were quite brutal) it never actually came up on a test. But now 'denote' pops up in my mental thesaurus when I'm looking for other ways to say 'said' in a scholarly paper and I'm always afraid that I'm using it incorrectly.

But yes, your example has the concept right. ;-)

[clowe]

I proofread a lot of creative writing from distant friends and peers, and one of the notes I give out pretty frequently is that sometimes, you don't need anythimg more complex than "said" or "asked." Some people assume they need a different word for it every time, and they'll invariably wind up overexaggerating the dialogue. Most of the time, I'll suggest an action their character could be doing or inserting something else if they feel the need to interject something into the conversation, but every so often, all they need to do is say "said."

[jessica_de_milo]

In fiction I totally don't believe in using saidisms/bookisms. I try to limit tagging at all. In scholarship though (at least for the professors I've run into here) the kind of perception/statement verbs you use are a primary part of your scholarly explication/synthesis.

... and I wrote this comment at least half an hour ago and got side tracked without posting it. Way to go focus!!