Unit 1 THE CORRECT WORD
Unit Objectives
At the end of the unit you will be able to
1. recognize multiple meanings a word may have, i.e. denotative and connotative meanings, affective and collocative meanings;
2. identify fal friends in English and learn to choo the correct word for an idea
3. learn to avoid making errors in subject-verb agreement; and
4. write a simple note.
Part 1 Warm-up activities
Form pairs and each write a short paragraph about AIDS and AIDS patients.
Student A: Do you think AIDS is a horrible dia? How horrible is it? Are you afraid of AI
外国人的名字DS patients? What do you think of them? Write a short paragraph to express your views.
Student B: Suppo you are an AIDS patient, do you think there exists any difference between AIDS and other fatal dias like cancer? Do you think you are a threat to public health? Write a short paragraph to express your views.
Part II Focus
2.1 Denotation and Connotation
Suppo you are going to write about a respectable teacher who body size is above the average. Choo the one you would u from the ntences below, and then discuss the inappropriateness of the other two:
a. He/She is plump.
b. He/She is portly.
c. He/She is fat.
So the works “fat, portly and plump”do not just mean overweight; they also suggest whether it is pleasant or unpleasant. We call the suggested meaning of a word its connotation.
Denotation全力以赴的近义词, on the other hand, refers to the literal and primary meaning of a word—the definition you find in a dictionary.
For example:
Mother denotes a woman who is a parent but connotes qualities such as protectiveness and affection; and weed denotes an uncultivated plant but connotes destruction and uncontrolled growth. When we write, we have to watch out for the connotative meaning of a word; otherwi, we may make silly mistakes.
Exerci: filling in the table below
铅球怎么扔的远电脑微信清理Word | Denotation | Connotation | Sentence |
Gold | | | |
home 脱离父子关系eagle | | | |
heart | | | |
sweater | | | |
| | | 广告语大全 |
A good example is the word “gold". The denotation of gold is a malleable, ductile, yellow element. The connotations, however, are the ideas associated with gold, such as greed, luxury, or avarice and also something very good. If you say that someone has a heart of gold, you are emphasizing that they are very good and kind to other people.
Thus 'home' denotes the hou where one lives, but connotes privacy and intimacy.
The word 'eagle' connotes ideas of liberty and freedom that have little to do with the word's literal meaning.
Heart: an organ that circulates blood throughout the body. Here the word "heart" denotes the actual organ, while on another context, the word "heart" may connote feelings of love or heartache. （My heart is broken）
Sweater: a knitted garment for the upper body. The word "sweater" may denote pullover sweater, while "sweater" may also connote feelings of warmness or curity.
Summary:阴道炎的症状有哪些
Denotation allows the reader to know the exact meaning of a word so that he or she will better understand the work of literature. It is the literal meaning of a word. (Literal meaning)
Connotations relate not to a word's actual meaning, or denotation, but rather to the ideas or qualities that are implied by that word. (implied meaning)
2.2 Attitude
In all kinds of writing, the words you choo may do more than inform. The lection of a word often reveals how you feel about your subject, whether you are pleasant, angry, critical or admiring. See if you can detect in the following ntences how the writer’s attitude changes from ntence to ntence:
a. What a slim girl she is!
b. How thin the girl is!
c. The girl is so skinny!
The slim suggests the writer’s approval of the girl’s figure, while the word skinny is just the opposite. No girl will feel flattered if she is said to be skinny, as it is next to a bag of bones! So the three words, though similar in their denotative meaning, are diver in affective meanings—that is, they reveal different attitudes of the writer.
When we write in English, we have to be careful with such emotionally words that can reveal the writer’s attitude.
The affective meaning of the word is connected to a person's personal emotions and how that would influence word choice.
Practice:
洁白的什么One of our friends is attractively thin and graceful. Is she slender or skinny?
You are describing some nurs working in a hospital who are pleasant and talk a lot in a friendly way making patents less nervous. Are they pleasant and chatty, or pleasant and talkative?
