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Objective
In this lesson,
you'll learn that words have both connotations and denotations. You'll
also learn that writers who are conscious about the sounds of words
write prose that is especially rich and vivid.
Connotation
and Denotation
In The Triggering
Town, the American poet Richard Hugo says, "I caution against
communication because once language exists only to convey information,
it is dying." Hugo isn't telling us not to communicate when we speak
and write; he's urging us to do more than communicate when
we speak and, more specifically, when we write. All words have two
levels of potential meanings, their connotations and denotations.
The denotation of a word is its literal meaning--the definition you
can find in any dictionary. In contrast, the connotation of a word
is what that word implies, or the emotional impact it makes--the associations
that most readers make. According to Webster's, the word "mother"
means "a female parent." But we know from experience--from living
with English (and with our own mothers) for a very long time, from
reading, and even from being exposed to the tricks of advertisers--that
the word "mother" means more than "a female parent." The word connotes
comfort, hearth, and home. Because of this richness, the word "mother"
also generates a picture in our minds when we read or hear it. We
take the associations we attribute to the word "mother" and apply
them to more than just infants in the expressions "mother country,"
"mother Earth," "mother land," and so on.
Being conscious
of the connotations of words helps writers use them to greater effect--it
helps them to fill, or infuse, their prose with emotional power. Words
also produce sounds, and being conscious of these sounds and
of their various effects will help you to intensify your writing and
polish your style. While prose writers use sound to their advantage
less overtly than poets, good writers always should be conscious of
the sounds they make when they write. When you revise for style, consider
the advantages of using words to reinforce your meaning, thereby infusing
your writing with grace.
It's worth noting,
too, that writers don't just use assonance, consonance, and alliteration
alone. They'll mix these methods up, instead--combining a repetition
of vowel sounds with a repetition of consonance sounds in a series
of sentences, playing with the rhythm of their sentences, too, to
reinforce the effect these devices can have on readers. We have not
covered all the sound play in the examples below, but have isolated
a few.
Assonance:
Repeated Vowel Sounds
We use assonance
when we repeat vowel sounds. Because they anchor ideas in sounds that
are appealing to the ear, repeated vowel sounds can help immensely
with the flow of clauses and phrases:
I have sometimes
wondered if I would ever have got out
of prison if it had not been for the older
man who had been arrested for the mysterious
petty larceny. (James Baldwin, "Here Be Dragons")
The repeated
o sounds in this example--both long and short--produce a soothing
path of sound to the more emphatic e and a sounds that
end the sentence. Notice that the e sound in "petty" rhymes
exactly with the e sound ending "larceny." It may seem silly to you
for us to suggest that this kind of repetition is comforting, but
it is: it gives us faith in the author we're reading, keeps us interested,
and appeals to our sense of sound. Here's another example:
On that day
at the park, the four of us-after breakfast
and further riding-walked the nature trails,
dived into the cold water of a blue lake surrounded
by green hills, raced our companions to the damn
and back in foot-driven paddleboats, lay
in the sand in our wet swimming suits and later in
the grass of the meadow above the lake, and
explored in the heat of late afternoon a cool
cave whose roof was furred with sleeping bats. (James
McConkey, "Passages Early and Late")
Although McConkey
repeats a whole number of vowel sounds in this passage, we've only
marked the long and short a sounds, so we can emphasize the
power repeating two sounds in one vowel can have. You might notice
that there's a full sense of conclusion in the phrase "sleeping bats."
That sense of conclusion or closure comes partly from how the vowel
sounds in "at," "after," "-----fast," "damn," "paddle----," "sand,"
"grass," and "after----" prepare us for the same sound in "bat." If
you mark where McConkey repeats the a sound first encountered in "day,"
does that repeated sound offer grace to this passage, as well? You
might also want to notice the repetition of other vowel sounds in
this passage.
Consonance:
Repeated Consonant Sounds
The repetition
of consonant sounds works much the same way as the repetition of vowel
sounds. In this passage, we've marked the s and g sounds.
Notice how they tie the sentence together, giving it coherence and
beauty:
I spent
several days and nights in mid-September
with an ailing pig and I feel driven to account for
this stretch of time, more particularly since the
pig died at last, and I loved, and things might easily
have gone the other way round and none left to do the accounting.
(E. B. White, "Death of a Pig)
Alliteration:
Repeated First Sounds
Although the
word "alliteration" describes the repetition of the initial sounds
of words, we've marked a "w" in the middle of a word in this series
of questions by Joan Didion to reveal how alliteration can emphasize
certain sounds that come elsewhere in words:
Why
is this woman in this airport? Why is she going nowhere,
where has she been? Where did she get that big emerald?
What derangement, or disassociation, makes her believe that
her will to see the water boiled can possibly prevail?
(Joan Didion, "Why I Write")
This Alice Walker
example shows us how the repetition of certain sounds in certain contexts
can even produce a comic effect:
I am fourteen
and baby-sitting for my brother Bill, who lives
in Boston. (Alice Walker, "Beauty: When the Other Dancer
is the Self")
Exercise
Do a quick
freewrite on any topic that comes to you in the box below. Print
this passage, and then revise in the second box provided, paying
as much attention to the sounds of the words you're using as you
can. [This exercise requires two text boxes]
Summary
Writing well
is writing beyond or above the urge to communicate-it is using words
to appeal to the senses, as well. Among the most important of senses
for readers is the sense of sound; polishing and perfecting style
includes being conscious of sound play.
  
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