Class terms or general terms, such as ‘man’, ‘dog’, ‘river’ etc., have two different kinds of meaning – they apply to things and signify some properties. The things to which a term applies constitute its denotation and the common and essential properties signified by the term constitute its connotation.

(a) Denotation:

A general term applies to several things. In one sense of ‘meaning’, the things to which a general term applies constitute its meaning. This is meaning in the sense of reference. The things to which a general term applies are called the denotation of the term. This sense of ‘meaning’ is called the denotative or referential meaning of the term.

Let us elucidate the idea of denotation meaning with an example. Consider the term month’. The term ‘month’ applies to January, February, March, April, etc. – to all the twelve months. The term ‘month’ applies equally in the same sense to all these months. When we say a month has less than 32 days, part of what we mean is that January has less than 32 days; February has less than 32 days and so on.

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Thus the months January, February, March, etc. constitute the denotation of the term ‘month’. The denotation of ‘boat’ is the set of all boats, the denotation of ‘dog’ is the set of all dogs, and the denotation of ‘chair’ is the set of all chairs that are (or over have been or ever will be) in the world.

The collection of all the objects, individuals to or events to which a term applies constitutes the denotation of the term. The denotation of term is the collection of individual things to which the term correctly applies.

One might think that since in course of time old things are destroyed and new things are created, denotation of a term does not always remain constant.

For example, one might reason that since people die and babies are born, denotation of ‘human beings’ would decrease with every death and increase with every birth. But this view is based on a mistake. The denotation of the term ‘human’ consists of all human beings – living, dead, and the unborn. So, particular deaths and births do not change the denotation of ‘human beings’.

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(b) Denotation and Extension:

A distinction is sometimes drawn between ‘denotation’ and ‘extension’ of terms. It ha been suggested that these two should not be used as synonymous expressions. It is pointed out that while denotation consists of all the members of the clam-term, its extension consist of all the subclasses included within it.

Thus, for example, the denotation of the term ‘book’ will consist c all the individual books to which the term correctly applies; extension of the term ‘book’ will’ consists of its sub-classes like ‘logic books’, ‘physics books’, ‘story books’ etc. Hence extension of a term consists of classes and denotation of a term consists of individual members.

It can be noticed that a term lacking denotation may still have extension. For example the term ‘unicorn’ lacks denotation since there are no such animals in the world, but it still can have extension in the form of having sub-classes such as ‘white unicorns’, ‘black unicorns’, ‘brow unicorns’ and so on. Similarly, terms like proper names lack extension but have denotation.

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(c) Connotation:

A general term signifies some properties or qualities on the basis of which we know ho to apply the term correctly. All the objects denoted by a given term share some common are essential attributes.

Connotation of a term consists of these common and essential qualities. By ‘common quality’ we mean the quality shared in common by all the members. By ‘essential quality’ we mean those qualities without which the term will not apply to something. On the basis of these common and essential attributes we are able to decide whether the term applies to a given object or not.

In other words, the set of features shared by all and only those things to which a term applies is called the connotation of that term. The connotation of the term ‘triangle’ insists of those attributes common to all triangles and found only in triangles. ‘Triangle’ means plane figure bound by three straight lines. ‘A plane figure bound by three straight lines’ constitutes me connotation of ‘triangle’.

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The connotation of a term is the set of all and only those properties that a thing must possess for that term to apply to it. The word intension is also used as a synonym of connotation.

The word ‘connotation’ is ambiguous. It has multiple senses. There are at least three different senses in which the words ‘intension’ and ‘connotation’ have been used. These are failed subjective, objective, and conventional connotation of a term.

‘Subjective connotation’ of a term is the set of attributes the user associates with that term. It is the set of all the attributes me user believes to be true of the objects denoted by the term. Subjective connotation is psychological in character. It varies from individual to individual and from context to context. It may also vary from time to time for the same person. So, subjective interpretations cannot provide any reliable guidance to the meaning of a term.

By ‘objective connotation’ we mean the list of all the properties found in the individuals belonging to the concept. But many of these properties may not be essential for the application of me concept. Let us, for the sake of argument, suppose that all human beings have two legs. Then being biped’ will be a part of the objective connotation of ‘human beings’. But this does not make it an essential property of human beings. If someone loses a leg in an accident, he or she does not cease to be human.

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Moreover, there are also other biped creatures, e.g. birds, apart from human beings. There is another problem with the idea of objective connotation. Since objective connotation will include all the features common to the objects denoted by the term, it would not be humanly possible to know all of these. Human beings are not omniscient. If meaning is identified with objective connotation, then we shall have to concede that one never knows the complete meaning of the terms one is using. So, objective connotation cannot be the public meaning of a term.

By conventional connotation we mean only those properties conceived to be the necessary and sufficient for ascribing objects to the term. Conventional connotation makes it easy for us to pick out the objects falling under the class term. In logic when we talk of connotation we mean to use it in the sense of conventional connotation. Conventional connotation is the same as logical connotation.