One of the exercises I used to illustrate the greater knowledge base of the group as opposed to the individual student consisted of asking the groups to come up with different names for males and females.
I wrote the names on the blackboard as the groups took turns reporting. Every time I used this exercise, the names for females exceeded those for males by at least three to one. The lists invariably included names students might be reluctant to use, those not found in family-oriented newspapers, for instance.
Next, to illustrate the differences between denotation and connotation, I asked the groups to determine which of the names had neutral overtones, which positive, and which negative. As one might expect, the majority of the names for females had a negative connotation.
I usually made the additional point that certain presumably paired words, such as 'master' and 'mistress,' while appearing more or less equal linguistically, had opposite connotations.
Topics: Women
