Connotation, a key element in diction or word choice, is connected with what practitioners in jobs, occupations, and professions are called, and what name the practitioners themselves prefer.  For example, in the chart below, synonyms are given for three occupations and professions, the synonyms being divided by levels of usage or diction.  Why do practitioners of an occupation or profession usually prefer the term or name from the high level of usage, rather than from the middle or low level of usage?  Connotation often depends on specific/concrete vs. general/abstract diction or the levels of diction (or usage).  The high level of usage often draws from the most general or abstract diction, as shown in the third example occupation or profession in the chart.  Another instance would be Miss Othmar's preference in the name for her profession, according to Linus in Charles Schulz's Peanuts cartoon series; according to Linus, Miss Othmar isn't just a teacher: she prefers the term educator.
 
 

Level of Usage/Diction	Occupation or Profession	Occupation or Profession	Occupation or Profession
High	physician	attorney	sanitation worker
Middle	(medical) doctor	lawyer	garbage collector
Low	M.D., doc, (saw)bones	ambulance chaser, mouthpiece	trash man

Not only does the level of usage of a term by itself confer prestige (and thus preference by practitioners of the profession or occupation itself) but also its generality or abstractness: e.g., "sanitation worker" for the trash man, or "educator" for college professor.  (Miss Othmar, as Linus notes in one of the Peanuts strips prefers the term "educator" over teacher.) 
 

N & Q on Robert Graves' Poem "The Naked and the Nude"

1. Vocabulary or allusions to check: construed (line 2); deficiency (4); reproach (line 7); "the Goddess" (line 11) [look up Robert Graves in R&J's appendix on poets in the back of the book to find the title of Graves' book with a key word in it that relates to this vocabulary item; then, on the internet, try to find out more specifically what the content is of this book, beyond what R&J indicate]; briary (line 22).

2. How does the poem naturally divide into the following three parts: stanza 1 (first part); stanzas 2-3 (second part); stanza 4 (third part)? How does each part function as a distinct thought unit?

3. (A) With regard to connotation, why would lack be less appropriate than deficiency (line 4), censure less appropriate than reproach (line 7), scanty dress less appropriate than dishabille (line 16)? (B) Why is the repeated use of the high level of usage appropriate in stanza 1? Why might this level of usage be especially appropriate to the first group of definers of the words naked and nude cited by the speaker? (C) Why is the high level of usage, especially in dishabille (line 16) appropriate in stanza 3, given which group of persons is the focus of the stanza?

4. With reference to the first question of R&J about the poem, what might be the significance of the repeated classical allusions in the poem, in both stanzas 2 and 4?

5. (A) How does Graves play off the high or formal level of diction with the standard or even colloquial level of usage in various stanzas? (B) How does this interplay relate to question 1 of the R&J questions?

6. (A) How is the line "they grin a mock-religious grin" (line 17) redundant? (B) What ideas or characterization might be suggested by the redundancy in this line?

7.  (A)  How is grammatical structure or syntax used thematically  in the long parenthetical interrupter in lines 2-5?  That is, how does this grammatical arrangement of the sentence that underlies the line make some (amusing) comments about lexicographers or the defining process? (B); How is grammatical structure or syntax used thematically in the sentence inversion in line10 (straightforward syntax would be "will see anatomy in nakedness")? One of the results of this syntax is the juxtaposition of the words "nakedness" and "anatomy" in line 10; why or how would such a juxtaposition be significant or meaningful? (C) How is grammatical structure or syntax used thematically in the sentence inversion in line 11 (straightforward syntax would be "And the Goddess shines naked when"); what word is emphasized, and how is this emphasis thematic or meaningful, with reference to the poem?

8. (A) Roberts and Jacobs perceptively suggest in their study question dealing with the etymologies of the words naked and nude that etymology is related to their respective, differing connotations. In the history of Western civilization, which society or culture has had more prestige associated with it -- that of ancient Rome, or that of the ancient Britons (the warriors who wore the metal helmets with the horns sticking out of each side)? How have these attitudes affected the connotations of the two respective words? (B) The reference by Roberts and Jacobs to Old English brings up the issue of the history of the English language.  Look this up in my Notes and Questions on Chaucer in my Humanities 2001 materials on my ASU website.  All high school and college students need to know that "ye olde coffee shoppe"  (a) is not "Old English," and (b) was never pronounced "yee olde coffee shoppe."
 

N & Q on William Blake's Poem "The Lamb"

1. The problem for William Blake in this poem is how to create the language -- diction and syntax -- that would suggest a very young and innocent speaker. How do the facets of diction and syntax, as explained by R&J in the chapter material (pp. 635-42), do that?

2. Many, many students have had trouble answering the three parts of R&J's excellent first question about the poem. Consider the following when trying to answer R&J's question: for 1a (who or what is the speaker), the explicit self-identification in line 17; for 1b (who or what is the listener), the explicit identification in line 17; for 1c (how the listener and speaker are related), line 18.

3. This poem brings up the issue of diacritical marks (look up the word diacritical in your collegiate dictionary), which appear or should appear in lines 13 and 18. Rarely are such marks supplied by the poets themselves in poetry of the nineteenth century or earlier; rather, these marks are supplied by later editors, who know they should be printed to help readers read the poem aloud, based on rhythm and meter (matters discussed in Ch. 19 of R&J). (A) In each of the two stanzas of ten lines, how many syllables are used in the line for the first two and last two lines in each stanza (lines 1-2 and 9-10 of each stanza)? (B) How many syllables are used in the enveloped material in the middle of each stanza -- how many syllables appear in each line in lines 3-8 of each stanza? (C) How does an editor know, based on 3a and 3b of this question, that the word called needs to be pronounced as two syllables (disyllabic) rather than one syllable (monosyllabic)?

4. (A) How is this poem divided into two parts -- that is, how does each stanza function as a thought unit? (B) How does the function of each of the two stanzas itself help to characterize a child's psychology or behavior?

5. As indicated not only by syllable count but also typography, each stanza of this poem has an envelope structure, lines 1-2 and 9-10 enveloping or bracketing lines 3-8. How is the concept of envelope (an outer covering of something inside) thematically relevant in the poem, as suggested in the second stanza, particularly the latter part of the stanza? How are the envelopes of the speaker and listener different, but the contents the same, via reference to some third person? (For math majors: if a = x, and b = x, then . . . )

6. (A) How do several of the words of the poem have religious connotations, or bring up religious allusions? (B) How might the use of the ampersand (the symbol "&") be more effective in diction or word choice than the use of the word and -- e.g., in characterizing a young innocent or naive speaker?