I loved reading Terry Barrett's article on denotation and connotation. It was such a fun and creatively written piece, that featured research spanning from adults to preschoolers.
He created a quite conducive learning curve that made the concepts he was presenting easily understandable to the reader. I identified mostly with his opening example of Panzani. I think most people can admit to staring a any label on a grocery item and feeling persuaded by it's image. That's what Barrett is arguing in his research. The denotations are simple: fresh produce, packaged spaghetti, lots of reds and greens. The connotations were relayed just as simply: the image is trying to create an image of what Barrett calls "Italianicity" and makes our mouths water and our minds imagine a home cooked meal. Barrett made a point in his case study of denotations and connotations across age gaps extremely accessible for the readers and the people he was studying.
I struggled to find meaning in his constant persistence about the Dalai Lama and his role as a subtitle on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. I felt he was trying to convey some deeper role of the editorial that was feature in the same issue as was the image of the sexually provocative Destiny's Child. However, I found no deep connection to the two other than who the reader's are familiar with and how that might change their perceptions of the magazine's content.
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