The Nuances of Language

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- Female: girl (+, informal), woman (+, formal), lady (+, formal), housewife (~, informal), girlfriend (+, formal), sweetheart (+, informal), mistress (-, slang), prostitute (-, informal), old lady (~, informal), grandma (+, formal)

Male: boy (+, informal), man (+, formal), gentleman (+, formal), money maker (~, informal), boyfriend (+, formal), cheater (-, informal), seducer (-, informal), old man (~, informal), grandpa (+, formal)

Positive connotations tend to have more formal uses. At times, they can also be informal. The negative and neutral connotations tend to have more informal uses. At times, they can also be slang. There are words that are used in certain situations. One would use boy when speaking to a child; however, boy wouldn’t be used when speaking to a grown man.

I can’t easily list negative words used for one sex than the other. I found myself finding an equal amount of negative words for each gender. For every negative word for a female, I could find a similar word for a male.

- Natural: positive, She left her hair natural today; it looked just like everybody else’s.

Old: negative, He is very old, which means he is mature.

Committed: positive, She committed to drink while driving

Free: positive, He gave her the notes for free; she didn’t even have to work for them.

Chemical: negative, The chemical reaction helped scientists come up with a cure to a disease.

Lazy: negative, Although she was lazy and procrastinated to do the assignment, she managed to get a 95%.

- Brittle, hard, fragile: The glass vase is very fragile. Hard would not work in this sentence because fragile means to break easily, and if it is hard then it would not break easily.

Quiet, withdrawn, glum: The girl was quiet while taking the test. Withdrawn would not work in this sentence because quiet means to not make a lot of noise, and withdrawn means to remove oneself from something.

Shrewd, clever, cunning: He thought of a clever idea for the art project. Cunning would not work in this sentence because clever means creative and cunning means to be skilled in a deceiving manner.

Thrifty, miserly, economical: She likes to save money, so she is a thrifty shopper. Miserly would not work in this sentence because thrifty means to spend cautiously and miserly means to hoard money and not spend it at all.

- The writer does not feel confident in the activity they are performing. Words like “dragged,” “jerked,” “clunk,” “dribbled,” and “trudged” helped me make a conclusion of the writer’s attitude.

- When I think about nature, I think about peace. I enjoy sitting outside and watching the sunset fade away. Many people go through their day obliviously going through the motions. They don’t take time to stop and capture the beauty of the world around them. For me, when I think about nature, I give that word a positive connotation. The positive sides of nature outweigh the negative.

- More DENOTATIVE

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Legal documents

Funding appeals

Scientific writing

Technical reports

Scholarly articles

Summaries/abstracts

Graduation and inauguration addresses

News stories

Magazine articles

Human interest stories in newspapers

Movie reviews

Campaign speeches

Propaganda

Advertising

Letters of recommendation

Speeches to juries

Wartime oratory

Funeral eulogies

More CONOTATIVE

Hyperbole: My neighborhood – My neighborhood is so clean you could eat off the street if you wanted to.

School in general – There are more positive reasons for people to go to school than there are universities in the world.

A friend’s athletic ability – My friend is so good at golf that he could go pro right now.

The weather in San Diego – Compared to the summers in Arizona, San Diego has the nicest weather year round.

A television show – There are so many reasons to watch this show than there are shows on television.

A musical group or sports team – The Angels are so good that they don’t even need Mike Trout to win.

Understatement: Our school – Our school says you should study for finals; they’re only worth half your grade.

The meal – The meal is all right, it’s only from a five star restaurant.

Our team – Our team is okay, all we did was win nationals.

The band – The band doesn’t have to be nervous; there are only millions of people watching them perform.

As a performer – As a performer, Adam Levine, says there’s a small amount of people watching him perform.

My first period teacher – My first period teacher is adequate, she only lets us pick where we get to sit.

Litotes:

- The music isn’t that bad.

- The book isn’t that boring.

- My trip to Europe wasn’t that long.

- The movie theater, in Chula Vista, wasn’t too far away.