CONNOTATIVE AND NON-CONNOTATIVE ADJECTIVES: CHARACTERISTICS - LITERATURE - 2024

The difference between connotative and non-connotative adjectives is based on the ability of this class of words to express or not characteristics of the noun they modify.

Thus, adjectives such as happy, restless or graceful belong to the group of connotatives. Meanwhile, the adjectives east, those and ours are not connotative.

Examples of connotative and non-connotative adjectives

Now, the main function of the adjective is to modify the noun. Both kinds of words must agree in gender and number. Adjectives are classified into qualifiers and determinatives.

The former express qualities, properties, states or characteristics, and the latter introduce the noun and define its scope.

As can be seen, the previous classification largely coincides with that of connotative and non-connotative adjectives. This considers the traditional definition of the adjective: a word that is attached to the noun to qualify or determine it. Meanwhile, the second takes into account whether adjectives have their own meaning or contextual meaning.

However, these two classifications do not keep an absolute correspondence. Connotative adjectives include all qualifying adjectives and numerals.

The latter determine the meaning of the noun by adding the idea of ​​number or order (three, first, last).

characteristics

Function

Connotative and non-connotative adjectives share the characteristics that are inherent in this class of words. As adjectives, they are a natural adjunct - or companion - of the noun. Its role is to specify the meaning of the name by adding various circumstances and nuances.

However, there is a fundamental difference between one and the other. The former denote qualities or characteristics of the noun they accompany and have meaning on their own.

On the other hand, the non-connotative ones need a context to be properly interpreted. This can be seen in the following examples:

• Disciplined child (Does not allude to context)
• That child (Refers to a context.)

Position

In addition to the above, another characteristic that connotative and non-connotative adjectives have in common is their position with respect to the noun they modify.

Generally, the first ones are postponed and the second ones before them. However, these positions can change, especially when you want to achieve certain expressive effects.

Thus, in the posterior position, a connotative adjective serves to specify (The modern building). Placed before the noun, it draws the interlocutor's attention to the quality, rather than to the object (The beautiful creature).

Even with some adjectives in particular, their position is decisive to interpret the desired message. Note the meaning provided by the adjective in the following sentences:

• It was a certain news (true news) that involved several ministers.
• He was talking about certain news (non-specific news) that involved various ministers.
• He was referring to an old friend (older friend) he had.
• He contacted an old friend (long time friend).

With respect to the non-connotative, these can also change their usual position (pre-set). This change often adds some expressive nuances.

For example, the expressions that woman and that man suggest a certain contempt or disapproval on the part of the speaker.

Agreement

Both, connotative and non-connotative adjectives, agree in gender and number. However, also for both, in the specific case of gender there are certain exceptions.

Some connotative adjectives - such as happy, cheerful, special, normal - do not present variations for masculine and feminine.

It should be noted that some connotatives also remain unchanged in the plural. Such is the case of free (free bus, free buses) and numerals.

Certain non-connotative adjectives also have the same form for masculine and feminine. So there is no difference between my apartment (male) and my house (female). This changes with other possessives: our apartment and our house.

Examples of connotative and non-connotative adjectives

Below are some fragments of the work María by the Colombian writer Jorge Isaac (1867). Connotative and non-connotative adjectives have been highlighted separately for a better understanding.

Connotative adjectives

“After six years, the last days of a luxurious August greeted me when I returned to the native valley. My heart overflowed with national love. It was already the last day of the trip, and I was enjoying the most perfumed morning of the summer.

The sky had a pale blue tint: towards the east and over the towering crests of the mountains, still half mourning, wandered some small golden clouds, like the gauze of a ballerina's turban spread by a loving breath. Towards the south floated the mists that during the night had covered the distant mountains.

I crossed plains of green grasses, watered by streams whose path blocked me by beautiful herds, which left their sleeping places to enter the lagoons or paths vaulted by flowering grass and leafy fig trees.

My eyes had hung avidly on those places half hidden from the traveler by the glasses of old gruduales; in those farmhouses where he had left virtuous people and friends.

In such moments the arias on U's piano would not have touched my heart… the perfumes that I inhaled were so pleasant compared to that of her luxurious dresses; the song of those nameless birds had harmonies so sweet to my heart! "

Non-connotative adjectives

“I accompanied my friend to his room. All my affection for him had been revived in those last hours of his stay at home: the nobility of his character, that nobility that he gave me so much evidence during our student lives, magnified him again before me. "

“But when, refreshed the mind, it returns to the memory hours later, our lips murmur in songs her praise, and it is that woman, it is her accent, it is her gaze, it is her light step on the carpets, which mimics that song, which the vulgar will believe ideal. "

“I doubted the love of Maria. Why, I thought, does my heart strain to believe her subjected to this same martyrdom? Consider me unworthy of possessing such beauty, such innocence.

I threw in my face that pride that had obfuscated me to the point of believing me for him the object of his love, being only worthy of his sisterly affection. In my madness I thought with less terror, almost with pleasure, about my next trip. "

“… Tell the boss that I thank him in my soul; that you already know that I am not ungrateful, and that here you have me with everything I have to send me. Candelaria is going to be at Easter: water on hand for the garden, for the sacatín, for the sleeve…. "

References

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   Carena Editions