It’s quite intriguing that the human race is able to string together hundreds and thousands of words per day to communicate amongst one another. It is a complex communication system that only we are capable of producing here on Earth. Through my 18 years of living I’ve noticed that the words we use to communicate, as well as the symbols and gestures are constantly changing and evolving as time progresses. A word is broken into two sub categories(denotation and connotation) I feel as if the denotative or dictionary definition of a word only gives us a minor understanding of the true meaning behind the language being used.
In a society where everyone has different dialects and usage of language I feel as if it is more important to understand the connotation of a word rather than it’s singular meaning. Take the word read for example. The word ”read” is what is called a heteronym. Heteronyms are words that have the same spelling, but different meanings. Saying, “I have to go read my notes” is different than if you say “I’ve already read that.” In both sentences read is spelled the same, but when you read it you pronounce it differently, whether in your head or aloud.
For this very reason it is so important that we understand the connotative meanings behind the words we speak. Communicating is everything and it is inescapable in our world. We can’t live without it which is why we need to be educated on it. What I want people to get out of this post is that we need to understand that language is never isolated to one meaning and we all share different reasonings behind the words we use. If we continue to educate ourselves on the different forms of communication we use than we can better understand those around us who are more alike than we think.
