English Vocabulary in Use: Advanced Book with Answers and Enhanced eBook Vocabulary Reference and Practice 3rd Edition

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English Vocabulary in Use Advanced
Connotation: making associations
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Different kinds of associations
Understanding associations
Journalists, advertisers and other writers or speakers who want to interest and entertain their 
audience oft en make use of word associations. A fashion advert might ask, for example, ‘Would you 
like to have that 
Paris look?’, which draws on the associations of Paris with glamour and style. Or 
someone might refer to 
cowboy builders, meaning builders who are not careful or trustworthy.
It might seem diff icult at first to understand this kind of language, but your knowledge both of the 
world and of the primary meanings of words will help you. Paris, for example, is known throughout 
the world as a centre of high fashion and it is quite possible that the name Paris is associated with 
glamour in your own language too. If you have seen a Western, you will have seen how cowboys 
oft en behave in a careless and dishonest way.
Think, for example, about the words 
shark, scar and diamond. You probably know their literal 
meanings – a large sea creature with sharp teeth, a mark left on the skin aft er a cut has healed, and 
a precious stone, respectively – but what associations do you think they have for English speakers in 
general? What might someone mean if they said the following?
‘They’re all 
sharks in that garage.’
‘I think that new off ice block is a 
scar on the landscape.’
‘Emma’s a real 
diamond.’
The idea of sharks as sharp-toothed creatures with an aggressive reputation should help you to 
understand that the speaker does not like the garage. The fact that a scar is a mark of a wound on 
something that was once unspoilt should help you to appreciate that the speaker does not like the 
new off ice block. The beauty and high value of a diamond as a precious stone should help you to see 
that the speaker has a high opinion of Emma.