from Nursery Rhymes for the Tender-hearted
Scuttle, scuttle, little roach-
How you run when I approach:
Up above the pantry shelf
Hastening to secrete yourself.
Most adventurous of vermin,
How I wish I could determine
How you spend your hours of ease,
Perhaps reclining on the cheese.
Cook has gone, and all is dark-
Then the kitchen is your park;
In the garbage heap that she leaves
Do you browse among the tea leaves?
How delightful to suspect
All the places you have trekked:
Does your long antenna whisk its
Gentle tip across the biscuits?
Do you linger, little soul,
Drowsing in our sugar bowl?
Or, abandonment most utter,
Shake a shimmy on the butter?
Do you chant your simple tunes
Swimming in the baby's prunes?
Then, when dawn comes, do you slink
Homeward to the kitchen sink?
Timid roach, why be so shy?
We are brothers, thou and I,
In the midnight, like yourself,
I explore the pantry shelf!
--Christopher Morley
Reread the dictionary definition.
Which of the denotative characteristics of a cockroach both poets include in their poems?
What characteristics does Wild give his roaches that are not in the dictionary definition?
What additional characteristics does Morley give to roaches?
In each poem, the insect acquires meaning beyond its dictionary definition. Both poets lead us away from a literal view of roaches to a non-literal one.
Which poet succeeds in giving roaches favorable connotations?
Which poet comes closer to expressing your own feelings about roaches?
7. Types of Connotations. Connotative meaning of the words can also be classified according to several criteria:
connotation of degree or intensity:
to surprise - to astonish - to amaze;
to shout - to yell - to bellow - to roar;
to like - to admire - to love - to adore - to worship;
connotation of duration of the action:
to stare - to glare - to gaze - to glance - to peep - to peer; to say (brief) - to speak - to talk (lasting);
to shudder ( brief) - to shiver (lasting);
to stare (surprise) - to glare (anger, fury) - to gaze (admiration, tenderness);
to tremble - to shudder (with horror, disgust);
alone - lonely (feeling of melancholy);
to sparkle (with positive emotions) - to glitter (with negative emotions);
the evaluative connotation (labelling something as good or bad):
well-known - famous - notorius (negative connotation) – celebrated (positive one);
the causative connotation:
to sparkle (with positive emotions, e.g., happiness, high spirit, etc.) - to glitter (with negative emotions - anger, rage, hatred);
to tremble - to shiver (from cold) - to shudder (from disgust, fear, horror);
to blush (from modesty, shame, embarassment) - to redden (from anger, indignation);
the connotation of manner of the action:
to run - to dash (to run very quickly);
to stroll (прогуливаться) - to stride (идти широким шагом) - to trot (бежать рысью) - to pace (ходить взад и вперед, шагать) - to stagger (идти шатаясь) - to stumble (идти, запинаясь о неровности) - to shamble (идти, тяжело волоча ноги);
the connotation of attendant circumstances:
to peep (look stealingly through a hole, crack or opening, from behind a newspaper, a fan or a curtain) - to peer (in darkness, through the fog, dimmed glasses or windows, from a great distance);
the connotation of attendant features:
handsome (a tall stature, fine proportions) - beautiful (usually - classical features and a perfect figure) - pretty (small delicate features);
girl - lass (dial.) - girlie (coll.) - maiden (poetic) - clamsel (arch.) - bird (slang); to be off, to clear out (coll.) - to take the air (slang) - to depart, to retire, to withdraw (formal).
From the fiction choose the words and analyze their connotational meaning, the types of connotation, why the author uses this word, how the word impacts on the meaning of the utterance or the sentence.
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