3. Words and associative meaning

3.1 Words and connotative meaning

book: C: contain knowledge and wisdom for people, youth must learn

E: it express ideas for people to consider, to agree or disagree, and to comment

Sexy: C: connotes loose sex morality

E: it is a positive human quality

Old, young: C: young means inexperienced, and inconsistent. Old means mature, skilled and experienced.

E: young means flexible, vigorous, and creative. Old means traditional, senile, and useless.

Dog: C: is very pejorative.

E: it can even be considered as a family member.

Peasant: C: doesn’t have derogatory connotations.

E: it has derogatory

Landlord, capitalist, boss:  C: are pejorative in Chinese

E: not

Comrade: C: connotes warmth, friendliness and equality

E: means spies of the Soviet Union

Ambitious, aggressive: C: it is pejorative

E: it is considered good qualities and both positive in meaning.

Self-made man: C:

E: it is positive term. Connoting lack of financial foundation and influential connections.

Individualism: C: it is means selfishness

E: it is positive term

Propaganda:  C: it is a neutral term.

E: it is a pejorative term in English

Do-gooder:  C: it is means unselfish and helpful

E: it is a pejorative term in English

Spiritual:C: it hasn’t this means in Chinese.

E: it has religious connotation.

3.2 Words and social meaning

British English: spoken in the U.K, Australia, New Zealand, West Indian Isles

American English: spoken in the North America.

There are also many triples of synonyms in Englsih.

English has been closely related to Latin as well. They borrowed dozens of words from Latin words entered English. Of course, sets of synonyms in English are not limited to the pairs and triples discussed above.