Denotation and connotation
In linguistics, the denotative sense or signified, the denotation, is opposed to connotative meaning or signified, connotation. ▪ Denotation is the literal meaning of a term, which can be defined. ▪ The connotation is the set of elements of meaning that can be added to this literal sense. The field of connotation is difficult to define because it covers all indirect, subjective, cultural, implicit and other meanings that make the meaning of a sign rarely reduce to this literal sense. Defining the connotation is so difficult that one sometimes comes to define it by default as anything which, in the sense of a word, does not belong to denotation. For example, if one is interested in the word cop, the denotative meaning is the same as that of policeman. But in this sense are added connotations pejorative and familiar. The same word or symbol may therefore have different connotations depending on the context in which it is used.