Choose Wisely: So let's talk about Diction. | The Advanced Education

Now that we’ve covered tone let’s move onto the diction within a work of literature.

Diction, or word choice, is looking at the simple issue of why did they pick that word over another. Why is it sometimes the most complicated word around.

Now the first thing to remember about diction is that every word has a denotation (a dictionary definition) and a connotation (the meaning and implication above and beyond what Webster’s may say about the word).

For instance “Overweight, Chubby, Fat, Obese, Moby-Dick”…all have a very similar denotation, but they have very different connotations. And the connotation will almost always also be tied to the tone and mood of the work.

So while you should always know the definition a word you are looking at, you should also be very aware of the implications that word has.

For instance let’s look at a line from Keat’s La Belle Dame San Merci, actually let’s take a look at the real line and then a version with only one small change.

“The sedge is withered from the lake”

“The sedge is withered on the lake”

The lines are the real (1) and mis-attributed (2) quote from a Keats poem. It’s only a change of from” to “on”…doesn’t seem all that important, it certainly doesn’t change the denotation of the line, but “from” suggests the plants have, almost mystically, withdrawn from the lake, a meaning that is not suggested in second line. In a Romantic era poem like this one is, the feeling of the mystical is all important and thus even this small word choice becomes very important.

But let’s look at another work that you may be more familiar with, the song “Can’t help falling in love.”

You’re probably most familiar with the famous version done by Elvis Presley.

I would like you to pay particular attention to the section at the end starting as 2:10

“Take my hand, take my whole life too, for I can’t help falling in love with you. For I can’t help falling in love with you.” (Underlined portion is backed up by chorus.)

Now compare that to rendition of the same song by Michael Buble, the section is at about 2:35

“Take my hand, take my whole, my whole life too, for I can’t help falling in love with you. For I can’t falling in love with you.”

Or this version done by Ingrid Michaelson at about 2:07

“So won’t you please just take my hand, and take my whole life too, cause I can’t help falling in love, in love with you. Cause I can’t help falling in love…falling in love…I keep falling in love with you.”

If we take the oldest version (Elvis) as our base, notice how the simple inclusion of two words “my whole” in the Bublé version makes the line become more self-centered and less concerned with the person to whom he is singing (this becomes even more apparent if you listen to the song).

The 3rd version by Ingrid Michaelson appears more sincere through the use of the informal “cause” instead of the formal “because” and its emphasis on falling in love rather than on the speaker or the one being sung to. Also the addition of “so won’t you pleas,” and another wise throw away phrase makes plea all the more powerful.

These are simple word choices but they make a huge difference. So is the difference between “‘cause” and “because” can change the tone and mood of a poem drastically…what can the change of more central words do…and why did author’s pick the words they do?

Stick around long enough and I will talk about Ingrid Michaelson a lot.

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