EXERCISE - Connotation
1. Note the contrast in emotional suggestion that comes to you from
hearing the words:
"Sodium chloride" and "salt"
"A test-tube of H2O" and "a cup of cold water"
"A pair of brogans" and "a little empty shoe"
"Bump" and "collide"
"A brilliant fellow" and "a flashy fellow"
"Bungled it" and "did not succeed"
"Tumble" and "fall"
"Dawn" and "6 A.M."
"Licked" and "worsted"
"Fat" and "plump"
"Wept" and "blubbered"
"Cheek" and "self-assurance"
"Stinks" and "disagreeable odors"
"Steal" and "embezzle"
"Thievishness" and "kleptomania"
"Educated" and "highbrow"
"Job" and "Position"
"Told a lie" and "fell into verbal inexactitude"
"A drunkard" (a stranger) and "a drunkard" (your father).
2. Make a list of your own similar to that in Exercise 1.
3. Read the sentences listed in EXERCISE - Slovenliness III and IV. What
do these sentences suggest to you as to the social and mental
qualifications of the person who employs them?
4. Read the second paragraph of Appendix 2. What does it suggest to you as
to Burke's social and mental qualifications?
5. Suppose you were told that a passage of twenty-eight lines contains the
following expressions: "mewling and puking," "whining schoolboy,"
"satchel," "sighing like furnace," "round belly," "spectacles on nose,"
"shrunk shank," "sans [without] teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans
everything.
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