Diction

Like an artist who paints in watercolor, pastel, or oil, a writer works in words. Diction is the technical term for “word choice.” There are literally thousands and thousands of words available for a writer to use, so most authors make very careful choices about the words they include.

Denotation and Connotation. To fully understand the idea of diction, we have to recognize the differences between two essential terms:

Denotation is the literal meaning of a word, free from any associated meanings.

Connotation is the cultural or emotional associations attached to a word.

An easy way to understand the difference between the two is to think about the word home. The denotation is simply “the place where one resides,” but think about the connotative meanings associated with the word: “comfort,” “safety,” “warmth.” You can see this even more clearly when you contrast home to another word the writer might have chosen—house, which has a more impersonal connotation to it than home.

Formal and Informal. In addition to creating a variety of associations for the reader, diction choices can also can create a certain level of formality through the use of very proper words or technical jargon, or casualness through the intentional use of slang.

Look, for example, at these two short passages from the novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Both describe the same character, Lydia, but notice how the diction in each passage is different and can lead to contradictory feelings toward Lydia:

  1. Lydia was a stout, well-grown girl of fifteen, with a fine complexion and good-humoured countenance; a favourite with her mother, whose affection had brought her into public at an early age. She had high animal spirits, and a sort of natural self-consequence, which the attentions of the officers, to whom her uncle’s good dinners and her own easy manners recommended her, had increased into assurance.

  2. At the mention of his youngest daughter’s name, Mr. Bennet shook his head. Although quite pretty, Lydia was a lively headstrong girl prone to a breathiness of speech. [. . .] He despaired of Lydia and for any man who would eventually take her as a wife.

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