To understand language, you need to understand how
words engender meaning. Words are arbitrary: They
have no inherent meanings; they have only the meanings
people give them. For example, in the English language,
a person who has suffered from a diffi cult past
experience is known as a “victim.” When many people
use a word to represent an object or idea, the word is
included in the dictionary. The agreed-upon meaning
or dictionary meaning is called the denotative meaning.
Including a word in the dictionary, however, neither
keeps its meaning from changing nor tells you the connotative
meaning—an individualized or personalized