An Analysis of Denotation and Connotation in Chairil Anwar’s Poem

Abstract

This study primarily investigates denotative and connotative meaning in
words. Both of denotation and connotation are helpful for readers of
poetry to find the interpretations and implied meaning. This analysis
focuses on meaning of words that was taken randomly from a poem.
The data is analyzed descriptively using Griffith’s concept about three
stages of interpretation, there are literal meaning, explicature and
implicature. The result shows that a word not only has denotation, but
also negative and positive connotation. Both of negative and positive
connotations are possible that refer to an expression or a word. The
major finding of the study is every word has one connotative meaning
either negative or positive.