The art of allusion
It’s not just about the direct meaning of words, you also have to be mindful of the emotional overtones they carry.
Awide vocabulary is important for a person’s language proficiency, and boosts the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. in short, a wide vocabulary helps effective communication.
Appropriate vocabulary is important because people have to express their ideas clearly and forcefully. Attention must be given to the connotation of the chosen words in your message. The implicit meaning of the chosen words will arouse the listener, speaker or reader to respond either positively or negatively to your message.
For instance, writers choose words both for what they mean (that is, their dictionary meanings or denotations) and for what they suggest (their connotations, or emotional associations).
For instance, ‘slim’, ‘ scrawny’ and ‘svelte’ all have related denotative meanings (thin) but different connotative meanings. And if we’re trying to pay someone a compliment, we better get the connotation right.
when someone calls a woman ‘scrawny’ or ‘skinny’ he has described the woman with negative connotations. if he wants to describe that woman in a positive tone, he will call her “slim” or “svelte”. Svelte means slim, elegant and stylish, and describes a woman in an attractive light.
Here’s another example: the followinging words and phrases all refer to “a young person”, but their connotations may be quite different depending, in part, on the context in which they appear: youngster, child, kid, little one, small fry, brat, urchin, juvenile, minor.
Some of these words tend to carry favourable connotations (little one), while others are negative (brat), and still others have fairly neutral connotations (child). Calling a young person a brat lets our readers know at once how we feel about the naughty kid.
Thus it is important to learn the implicit meanings attached to words, for emotive vocabulary has positive or negative connota-connotations.
wewe also wish to be careful about the implications of sexism in our spoken words. For instance: master = a powerful man to be obeyed (positive connotation).
mistress = a woman who has power or a woman who depends on a man for support without being wedded to him (negative connotation).
wizard = a man who practises magic, his power has a positive connotation.
witch = a woman with supernatural power; somehow it’s seen as unattractive or evil, or even describes a woman ensnaring a man with her charms.
who is manning the office? = leading the staff in office (positive connotation)
He is womanising = seducing women (negative connotation)
Next, we come to euphemisms, which is a kind of “doublespeak”, or a statement with more than one dubious meaning, which is intended to hide the truth. in society, government officials, teachers, politicians, advertisers, business-businessmen, friends andand family use euphemisms to guide (or
Svelte: