Ok people are arguing about semantics on my dash.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Ok people are arguing about semantics on my dash.

Pull up a chair people, we’re ganna talk about connotation and denotation.

Oh no patty, not that!

Now, there’s a lot of talk of words and meanings. Specifically the word ‘slut’ is on my dash at the moment so we are going to use it as my example.

Denotation is a word’s definition. It is what the dictionary says a word means. Often this is clinical and phrased very specifically so. Denotation is not something that is judgmental, because definitions are not supposed to be judgmental, they exist to simply explain.

Looking at slut’s denotation, one could maybe argue that it is simply a word that is meant to describe a promiscuous woman without inherent condemnation. Maybe.

However you cannot divorce a word from its connotation.

Connotation is an associated meaning of a word. It’s more than just a secondary definition, it can basically be described as what as word as come to mean IN ADDITION TO the original definition. Often connotation directly ties in with historical and cultural uses of the word.

Now, let’s return to the word slut.

Slut is a word that is directly tied to insulting someone. I cannot think of a woman that I know over the age of probably ten who has not been called a ‘slut’ by someone. Rarely does it actually have any ties to its denotative meaning, instead used as a method of manipulation over another person.

Because a slut is undesirable, possibly diseased, used, and someone who is easily discarded. To be a slut means you were ‘asking for it’, whatever it is. That is what many people hear when they hear the word slut. There’s no respect, only condemnation. It’s not a nice word, much like many words are not nice words even if their definitions can seem relatively benign.

There have been efforts to ‘reclaim’ the word slut, and people have the ability to use it in an affectionate manner. In these instances the connotation may be altered, but only within those instances. The pervasive culture around the word is still overall negative and judgmental.