A smiling patient angrily states, "I will not cough and deep breathe." How will the nurse interpret this finding?

A) The patient's denotative meaning is wrong.
B) The patient's personal space was violated.
C) The patient's affect is inappropriate.
D) The patient's vocabulary is poor.

An inappropriate affect is a facial expression that does not match the content of a verbal message (e.g., smiling when describing a sad situation). The patient is smiling but is angry, which indicates an inappropriate affect. The patient's personal space was not violated. The patient's vocabulary is not poor. Individuals who use a common language share denotative meaning: baseball has the same meaning for everyone who speaks English, but code denotes cardiac arrest primarily to health care providers. The patient's denotative meaning is correct for cough and deep breathe.