Both denotation （指称，指称之物）and connotation（含蓄的意义） refer to the meanings of words. Denotation is the literal meaning of a word, the one we find in a dictionary. Connotation, on the other hand, is the implied meaning of a word, the one a word suggests to us, or what it makes us feel or think.So, connotation contains the emotional implications and associations that a word may carry, in contrast to its denotative meanings.

    Read carefully the following sentences from Text A, and pay close attention to the underlined words. These words have clear denotations as well as connotations.

Example 1

Here's another familiar example: If we don't pay our credit card bill on time, we get demanding, nasty emails from the credit card company saying something like: "Your failure to pay is unacceptable. Pay immediately or you'll be in trouble!" (Para. 2)

Denotation: extremely unkind or unfriendly

Connotation: The word implies that these unpleasant emails sent by the credit card company are disgusting and make people feel angry and annoyed.

Example 2

Advertisements invade our daily lives. We are constantly surrounded by the message to spend, spend, spend. (Para. 4)

Denotation: go into a place in large numbers

Connotation: It connotes a sense of forcefulness and it also has an implied meaning of being overwhelming, resented and unwanted.

Paradox

Definition: A paradox is a figure of speech consisting of a statement or proposition which on the face of it seems self-contradictory, absurd or contrary to established fact or practice, but which on further thinking and study, may prove to be true, well-founded, and even to contain a succinct point.

Paradox（似非而是的隽语）表面上自相矛盾但实质上入情入理的阐述。

For example:

1.No news is good news. 没有消息就是好消息。

2. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. 战争就是和平。自由就是奴役。无知就是力量。

3.Homeless, they have a hundred homes.他们无家可归，便处处为家。

4.More haste, less speed. 欲速则不达。

5.Love is a sweet torment.爱情是甜蜜的痛苦。

6.One man is no man.孤掌难鸣。