CONNOTATION AS AN OBJECT OF LINGUISTIC RESEARCH

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of interpretation of connotation. Author analyzes various approaches, namely stylistic, linguocultural, semiotic and pragmatic. In the stylistic tradition, connotation is viewed as additional shades of meaning. In the semiotic researches, connotation is understood as the second signified, for which a sign of the denotative system is a signifier. In pragmatic framework, connotation is viewed as the information that encodes the attitude of the sender and/or the recipient to the object of speech and to the communication conditions.

The modern realities require viewing connotation as an integral part of the language system, which cannot be limited only by one of the frameworks. Therefore, an attempt is made to give such a definition of this phenomenon, which would cover all its features: associative nature, semantic content, cultural marking and pragmatic orientation. Connotation is the meaning of a linguistic unit that has a variational emotional, figurative and evaluative character. In our opinion, what is called stylistic value, in fact, is a generic name for emotional, evaluative and expressive meanings expressed in language by stylistic means. As a result, it is irrelevant to reduce connotation to a purely stylistic phenomenon.

Connotative meaning can be complementary to denotative meaning, or it can come to the fore. There are a number of words, which are used not to indicate an object, but to express the attitude of the speaker to the object according to the situation. Therefore, connotation cannot be considered only as an additional or secondary meaning. In speech, connotation is used as an instrument of influence, by which the sender of the message, taking into account recipient’s peculiarities, the situation of communication and background knowledge, tries to make some impression on the recipient or to achieve a certain goal. The sender’s goals are achieved due to the use of linguistic units in unusual meaning. However, over time, with repeated use of the linguistic unit, the accompanying meaning, which at first was purely contextual, becomes fixed. Consequently, the connotative meaning can be fixed or depend on the context (be invariant or contextual). Connotation is often conditioned by the linguistic picture of the world and cultural markings. Associations, which form the basis of connotation, embody the notion of the whole linguistic group. Thus, connotation is the meaning of a linguistic unit that has associative nature, semantic content, cultural marking and pragmatic orientation. Such a definition eliminates the diffusion of the phenomenon and makes significant refinements into the terminology of lexical semantics.