RELATION OF TONE AND GESTURE TO WORDS. I 59 



objects, qualities, and actions. Yet such notcE — be they verbal 

 or otherwise — thus learned by special association, are not, 

 strictly speaking, names. By the use of such a sign the 

 talking bird merely affixes a vocal mark to a particular object, 

 quality, or action : it does not extend the sign to any other 

 similar objects, qualities, or actions of the same class ; and, 

 therefore, by its use of that sign does not really connote any- 

 thing of the particular object, quality, or action which it 

 denotes. 



So much, then, for signs as denotative. By signs as 

 connotative, I mean signs which are in any measure attributive. 

 If we call a dog Jack, that is a denotative name : it does not 

 attribute any quality as belonging to that dog. But if we 

 call the animal " Smut," or " Swift," or by any other word 

 serving to imply some quality which is distinctive of that dog, 

 we are thereby connoting of the dog the fact of his presenting 

 such a quality. Connotative names, therefore, differ from 

 denotative, in that they are not merely iiotcv or marks of the 

 things named, but also imply some character, or characters, 

 as belonging to those things. And the character, or 

 characters, which they thus imply, by the mere fact of 

 implication, assign the things named to a group: hence these 

 connotative names are con-notcB, or the marking of one thing 

 along zvith another — i.e. express an act of nominative classifi- 

 cation. This is an important fact to remember, because, as 

 we shall afterwards find, all connotative terms arise from the 

 need which we experience of thus verbally classifying our 

 perceptions of likeness or analogy. Moreover, it is of even 

 still more importance to note that such verbal classification 

 may be either receptual or conceptual. For instance, the first 

 word (after Mamma, Papa., &c.) that one of my children learnt 

 to say was the word Star. Soon after having acquired this 

 word, she extended its signification to other brightly shining 

 objects, such as candles, gas-lights, &c. Here there was 

 plainly a perception of likeness or analogy, and hence the 

 term Star, from having been originally denotative, began to 

 be also connotative. l^ut this connotative extension of the 



