Emblezzlement, Peculation, and Connotation

In a previous DWT post, Michael argues that there’s no such thing as a true synonym because a word’s connotation always colors its denotation.

Commenting on the article, a reader refuted Michael’s argument with the words peculation and embezzlement:

I have found one [an exception], and i dont know why it exists. Peculation; definition is “embezzlement” in other words peculation means embezzle embezzlement etc..so thus embezzlement and peculation are of identical meanings. Which makes no sense to me.

Technically, the words do mean the same thing: “taking money that belongs to someone else.” However, there is a useful distinction that many writers observe.

Embezzlement is used for the sneaky crime of a private citizen, while peculation applies to the act of misappropriation of money and contracts by persons in high places. Embezzlement is a crime against an employer; peculation is a betrayal of the public trust.

Ex-Macon teller pleads guilty in embezzlement
2 ex-Fort Peck employees guilty of embezzlement

every one of [the government] ministers has helped in tile work and is guilty of peculation on a gigantic scale…

The second governorship of Clive was marked by … the enforcement of stringent regulations against the besetting sin of peculation.

Although the connotations of many words are the same for large numbers of readers, personal associations can color the way a listener or reader reacts to a given word. For example, for most people the word mother probably carries positive connotations of warmth and nurturing. For the child of an abusive or mentally-ill woman, however, the feelings stirred by the word mother might be negative. Apart from such personal associations, words acquire connotations for us as we encounter them in our reading.

Vocabulary acquired from wide reading brings connotation along with denotation.

denotation: The meaning or signification of a term.

connotation: That which is implied in a word in addition to its essential or primary meaning.

A failing of present day education is the practice of teaching vocabulary chiefly by means of word lists or “vocabulary books.” Vocabulary lists should be used for review; children can best acquire a lasting vocabulary by reading books like Treasure Island and A Tale of Two Cities. A sense of the connotation of words is developed by reading the words in a variety of contexts.

sumber

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Explaining the Explanation Regarding "THAN HE"

My post about the use of than as a preposition left a reader wondering about some of the grammatical terms used in the explanation:

I’m…a bit unsure about the terms ‘demonstrative pronoun’, ‘conjunction’ and ‘preposition’ in this context. Could you please explain this a little more?

The terms being asked about are from this statement:

The OED has listings for than as a demonstrative pronoun and as a conjunction, but not as a preposition. However, it does include a note about the use of than as a preposition and states that this use “is now considered incorrect.”

demonstrative pronoun

English has four demonstrative pronouns: this, that, these, and those. Like any pronoun, a demonstrative pronoun stands for a noun. At the same time, it serves to point out or separate the noun it stands for from other objects:
This is the one I meant.
Those are yours.
May I have these?
Give me that!

The OED entry for than as a “demonstrative pronoun” documents an obsolete use in which than was used where we now use that.

preposition

English has many prepositions. They are those little words that show a connection of some sort between a noun that follows it and another word in the sentence:
That is the pen of my aunt. The preposition of relates “aunt” to “pen,” indicating ownership.
The cat sat on the mat. The preposition on relates “mat” to “sat,” indicating a spatial relationship.

The noun that follows a preposition is said to be “governed” by it.
I sat by my father. The noun “father” is governed by the preposition “by.”

When the word governed is a pronoun, the pronoun will be in the objective case: I sat by him. Him is the object form of he.

conjunction

Conjunctions are used to connect clauses or sentences:
You may go with your friends after you have finished your homework. After is a conjunction introducing the second clause which tells “when” about the verb may go in the main clause.

Conjunctions are used to co-ordinate words in the same clause:
Take your books and your papers. And joins book and papers, words of equal importance.

The conjunction than is used to introduce comparative clauses. The problem in the “than he/than him” controversy is that the second clause often remains unexpressed:
Charlie is taller than I.
You are kinder than he.

English speakers of a certain age have learned to provide the missing clause mentally:
Charlie is taller than I [am tall].
You are kinder than he [is kind].

Reader Rob Baker defends the use of the object form “him” after “than” in certain contexts:

Sometimes “than him” is correct:
She likes Johnny Depp more than he (does).
She likes Johnny Depp more than him (more than she likes him).

This is a valid defense of “than him.” However, the “correctness” of the second example depends entirely upon context. The speaker’s meaning of the “him” would be clear enough in conversation, but in writing, it would be ambiguous. It would also sound like nonstandard English.

Another reader, Gloson, offers this suggestion:

Just don’t use “than he” or “than him”. Simply just use “than he is”.

This is sound advice. In writing especially, if a few extra words are needed to make one’s meaning clear, why not use them? For example, the ambiguity of “She likes Johnny Depp better than him,” can be avoided by being specific: She likes Johnny Depp better than she likes Orlando Bloom.

The fact that this is my second post to include a discussion of “than he” vs “than him” should be a clue that this distinction is in the process of breaking down. Until than/him becomes universally acceptable, writers are wise to consider their audience before following the conjunction than with an object pronoun.

SUMBER

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Tips Menulis: Taller Than He

A reader questions the use of “than him” in the following statement:

From 1970 on, his secretary Marie-José Gros-Dubois, twenty years younger than him, was faithfully near his side.

Asks the reader,

Is this correct?—or should it say “twenty years younger than he”?

Whether “than him” is correct or not depends upon whether than is seen as a preposition or a conjunction.

Since I cannot think of than as anything but a conjunction, the use of “than him” in this sentence strikes me as non-standard.

The OED has listings for than as a demonstrative pronoun and as a conjunction, but not as a preposition. However, it does include a note about the use of than as a preposition and states that this use “is now considered incorrect.”

Merriam-Webster, however, defends the use of than as a preposition.

[than as a preposition is] used by speakers on all educational levels and by many reputable writers with the objective case form of the following pronoun when the first term in the comparison is the subject of a verb or the predicative complement after a copulative verb though disapproved by some grammarians except in the phrase than whom

Bottom line: If you’re writing for a British audience, don’t ever write “than him.” If you’re writing for an American audience, think twice about it. Written English is more conservative than spoken English. Speakers who think nothing of saying “She’s taller than me” in conversation may still cringe to see it in print.

sumber: Taller Than He

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