What is Denotative-Objective Description

Any word has a double meaning: the denotative and the connotative. The first refers to what a word properly means, that is, what it means properly and, therefore, the definition of it is what we can find in a dictionary. In this way, if we take the word sea as a reference, in a dictionary it will be described as a mass of salty water that covers the Earth for the most part. However, the denotation of the term is accompanied by a series of subjective values ​​or ideas, the connotation.

For example, for a sailor, the sea is much more than the definition that appears in the dictionary. In this way, when we use a certain term, it can be interpreted with a double reading by the receiver of the message. In other words, what is objective for someone has a subjective component for someone else and vice versa.

Describing reality as it is

The difference between the denotative and the connotative meaning of a word can be extrapolated to any type of description. When we make a denoting description, we are saying what something is like objectively. Thus, if we say that a girl is blonde, tall and thin, we make a portrait based on the reality of her as a person. This type of description is what we make when we want to communicate information rigorously and without any evaluative component. In the scientific, technical, legal or strictly informative field, the

communication is denotative-objective, since the subjective aspects of the transmitter they are irrelevant.

In a zoological description of an animal, what matters is everything that explains what the animal is like. animal (its size, its weight, its physiological characteristics and all those words that serve for your classification how to be alive).

In literary language the writer combines denotation and connotation depending on the message he intends to convey. If a person is described, reference is made to their visible physical features and characteristics, but also to the emotions transmitting personal or human qualities.

The objective denotative description is fundamentally neutral

Scientific texts are the paradigm denotation and in them the reader seeks neutral information, that is, without any subjective point of view.

It must be borne in mind that describing implies representing reality through words and the tendency to objectivity is the basic criterion for any text scientific or technical. Specialized terminology, the logical ordering of the message and strictly descriptive data abound in this type of text.

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