Connotation and Meaning Approaches to Semiotics 99 Editorial Committee Thomas A. Sebeok Roland Posner Alain Rey Mouton de Gmyter Berlin • New York Connotation and Meaning by Beatriz Garza-Cuarön Translated from the Spanish by Charlotte Broad Mouton de Gruyter Berlin • New York 1991 Mouton de Gruyter (formerly Mouton, The Hague) is a Division of Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin. © Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Garza-Cuarön, Beatriz. [Connotaciön. English] Connotation and meaning / by Beatriz Garza-Cuarön ; translated from the Spanish by Charlotte Broad. p. cm. — (Approaches to semiotics ; 99) Translation of : La connotaciön. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and Indexes. ISBN 0-89925-757-7 (acid-free paper) 1. Connotation (Linguistics) I. Title. II. Series. P325.C63G313 1991 401'.43-dc20 90-27386 CIP Deutsche Bibliothek Cataloging in Publication Data Garza-Cuarön, Beatriz: Connotation and meaning / by Beatriz Garza-Cuarön. Transl. from the Span, by Charlotte Broad. — Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, 1991 (Approaches to semiotics ; 99) ISBN 3-11-012670-2 NE: GT © Copyright 1991 by Walter de Gruyter & Co., D-1000 Beriin 30 All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this bock may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any Information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Printing: Gerike GmbH, Berlin. — Binding: Lüderitz & Bauer, Berlin. Printed in Germany. To my mother In memoriam Contents Introduction Part One On the Origins of the Problem Chapter I The Origin of the Problem and of the Term Connotation: The Thirteenth and the Fourteenth Century 7 Background 7 Aspects of the Theory of the Proprietates Terminorum 11 William of Ockham's Concept of Connotation 15 Ockham's Theory of Signs 18 Ockham's Doctrine as a Starting Point for the Demarcation of the Problem of Connotation 23 The Modus Adiacentis, or Mode of Adherence, in Thomas of Erfurt's Speculative Grammar 25 Chapter II The Emergence of the Problems of the Concept of Connotation: The Fifteenth to the Seventeenth Century 41 Background 41 The Substantive-Adjective Distinction Upheld 43 The Usage and Meaning of Connotation in the Port-Royal Grammaire and Logique 44 The Introduction of the Concepts of Comprehension and Extension.. 50 The Additional Meaning of Words: Accessory Ideas and Affective Nuances 54 Chapter III The Incorporation of the Antithetical Pair Denotation- Connotation into Modem Logic: The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 61 James Mill: The Inversion of the Mediaeval Usage of the Meaning of Connotation 61 John Stuart Mill: The Introduction of Denotation and Connotation into Logic 64 viii Contents The Passage of Denotation and Connotaion into Twentieth Century Logic 71 The Development of the Concept of Connotation in Mathematical Logic 73 Examples of Distinctions Conceming the Concepts of Denotation and Connotation 76 Chapter IV Other Tendencies: Meaning as Association of Ideas, Connotation as Association of Ideas, as Emotive Meaning and as the Creation of Concepts 91 John Locke: The Speaker and the Hearer in English Empiricism 92 Ogden and Richards: The 'Triangular' Delimitation of Meaning 95 Marshall Urban's Connotations 100 The Possible Origin of the View of Connotation as 'Additional Meaning' 102 The Technical Usage of Connotation in Experimental Psychology ...105 Part Two On the Problem of Connotation in Linguistics Chapter V Delimitations of the Linguistic Sign and Limitations of Meaning as the Object of Study 119 The Major Philosophical Distinctions 119 The Usage of Logical and Grammatical Suppositions in Linguistics 122 A Further Limitation to the Study of Meaning: Lexicology 123 Stephen Ullmann's Adaptation of the Ogden-Richards Triangle 125 Kurt Baldinger's Opinion of the Triangle Theory 129 The Invalidity of the Triangle Theory in Linguistic Semantics 136 Klaus Heger's Trapeze 137 A Misinterpretation of Saussure's Course: The So-called Consubstantiality or Solidarity of the Sign 141 Katz and Fodor: An Example far from the Triangle Tradition 147 Chapter VI Connotation in Linguistics 153 Bloomfield's Understanding of Connotation and His Conception of Meaning 154 Hjelmslev: Connotation, Connotators, and Connotative Semiotics ....160 Mounin's Study of Connotation 164 Contents ix Martinet: Cultural and Aesthetic Connotations 166 Greimas's Treatment of Connotation as the 'Sociology of Common Sense' 167 Pottier: The Virtueme and Connotation 168 Gary-Prieur's Classifications 172 Prieto: Style and Connotation 173 Further Uses of Connotation 175 Chapter VII Instances of the Use of Connotation in Semiotics and Literary Criticism 183 Eco's Use of Connotation in Semiotics 184 Cohen and Barthes: Connotation in Literary Criticism 191 Kerbrat Orecchioni's Views on Connotation 194 Chapter VIII Connotation: The Contrast between Systematic and Asystematic Facets in the Description of Meaning in Natural Languages 207 Meaning and Connotation: Problems 207 Three Significant Distinctions Derived from Philosophy 210 Classification of Problems Arising from the Opposition between Denotation and Connotation 212 Group 1. Primary or Unique Meaning versus Secondary or More than one Meaning 216 Group 2. Cognitive Meaning versus Other Kinds of Meaning 217 Group 3. Direct Reference versus Indirect Reference 220 Group 4. Fixed Meaning versus Variable or Free Meaning 222 Group 5. Homogeneous or Systematic Information versus Heterogeneous or Asystematic Information 224 Group 6. Central or Essential Information versus Additional, Secondary, or Complex Information: Style 229 Group 7. Literal Meaning versus Metaphoric or Figurative Meaning 230 Group 8. A Synchronic View of Meaning versus a Diachronic View of Meaning 235 Group 9. Linguistic Meaning versus Non-linguistic Meaning 240 Final Remarks 240 Bibliography and Abbreviations 251 X Contents Index of Names 269 Index of Subjects 277