In linguistics , the denotative meaning or signified, the denotation , is opposed to the connotative meaning or signified, the connotation. Denotation is the literal meaning of a term that can be defined (and found in the dictionary). connotation is the set of elements of meaning which can be added to this literal meaning (and which may or may not be found in the dictionary).
For example, "car", "automobile" and "ride" (slang) have the same denotation, because all of these words refer to a car. But they have different connotations:
The field of connotation is difficult to define, because it covers all the indirect, subjective, cultural, implicit and other meanings which make that the meaning of a sign is rarely reduced to this literal meaning. Defining connotation is so difficult that sometimes it comes to defining it by default as anything that, in the sense of a word, does not fall under denotation.
For example, if we are interested in the word cop , the denotative meaning is the same as that of policeman . But in this sense are added pejorative and familiar connotations.
The same word or symbol may therefore have different connotations depending on the context in which it is used. Thus, the color white connotes purity and marriage for a European, mourning for an Asian; while the swastika , if seen by an Indian as a Hindu religious symbol (representing positive energy), evokes Nazism for a Westerner .
The opposition between denotation and connotation maintains complex relationships with the opposition between literal and figurative senses of linguistic signs.
