The study of the meaning system of a language. The word meaning has itself many meanings, and semantic approaches vary widely. In one view, meaning is the relationship between language and the external world (referential or denotative meaning), and semantics enquires into the precise relationship between a word and the concept it stands for. In another, it involves the mental state of the speaker, as reflected in a range of personal and emotional overtones (affective or connotative meaning). In a third, it refers to the social context in which language is used, and from which it derives part of its significance (contextual meaning). In a fourth, it refers to the sense relations which link words and phrases, by which we know, for example, that some words have the same meaning (eg car, automobile), some have opposite meaning (eg single, married), and some have an included meaning (eg banana, included within fruit). Within linguistics, it is useful to distinguish between lexical meaning (the dictionary meaning of a word), and structural meaning, which a form derives from its position and function in the grammatical system of the language. A considerable part of the present-day subject is devoted to the study of the meanings of expressions in terms of formal systems of analysis, or calculi (formal semantics).
| Linguistics |
| Theoretical linguistics |
| Phonetics |
| Phonology |
| Morphology |
| Syntax |
| Semantics |
| Lexical semantics |
| Statistical semantics |
| Structural semantics |
| Prototype semantics |
| Stylistics |
| Prescription |
| Pragmatics |
| Applied linguistics |
| Psycholinguistics |
| Sociolinguistics |
| Generative linguistics |
| Cognitive linguistics |
| Computational linguistics |
| Descriptive linguistics |
| Historical linguistics |
| Comparative linguistics |
| Etymology |
| History of linguistics |
| List of linguists |
| Unsolved problems |
Semantics (Greek semantikos, giving signs, significant, symptomatic, from sema, sign) refers to the aspects of meaning that are expressed in a language, code, or other form of representation. Semantics is contrasted with two other aspects of meaningful expression, namely, syntax, the construction of complex signs from simpler signs, and pragmatics, the practical use of signs by agents or communities of interpretation in particular circumstances and contexts.
Though terminology varies, writers on the subject of meaning generally recognize two sorts of meaning that a significant expression may have: (1) the relation that a sign has to objects and objective situations, actual or possible, and (2) the relation that a sign has to other signs, most especially the sorts of mental signs that are conceived of as concepts.
The Dynamic Turn in Semantics
This traditional view of semantics, as a finite meaning inherent in a lexical unit that can be composed to generate meanings for larger chunks of discourse, is being fiercely debated in the emerging domain of cognitive linguistics and also in the non-Fodorian camp in Philosophy of Language.
Prototype Theory
Another set of concepts related to fuzziness in semantics is based on prototypes.
Logic and mathematics
Many of the formal approaches to semantics applied in linguistics, mathematical logic, and computer science originated in techniques for the semantics of logic, most influentially being Alfred Tarski's ideas in model theory and his semantic theory of truth. Also, inferential role semantics has its roots in the work of Gerhard Gentzen on proof theory and proof-theoretic semantics. One of the most popular alternatives to the standard model theoretic semantics is truth-value semantics.
Computer science
In computer science, considered in part as an application of mathematical logic, semantics reflects the meaning of programs.
Psychology
In psychology, semantic memory is memory for meaning, in other words, the aspect of memory that preserves only the gist, the general significance, of remembered experience, while episodic memory is memory for the ephemeral details, the individual features, or the unique particulars of experience.
Major theorists
| Aristotle Thomas Aquinas Augustine of Hippo J.L. Austin Jeremy Bentham Rudolf Carnap Janet Dean Fodor Gottlob Frege | Cliff Goddard Nelson Goodman H.P. Morris | Charles Sanders Peirce C.K. Richards Bertrand Russell Ferdinand de Saussure Alfred Tarski Anna Wierzbicka Ludwig Wittgenstein |
Linguistics and semiotics
| Colorless green ideas sleep furiously Discourse representation theory General semantics Meta-semantics Natural semantic metalanguage Pragmatic maxim Pragmaticism Pragmatism Semantic change Semantic class | Semantic feature Semantic field Semantic lexicon Semantic progression Semantic property Semeiotic Sememe Semiosis Semiotics |
Logic and mathematics
| Formal logic Game semantics Model theory Possible world | Proof-theoretic semantics Semantics of logic Semantic theory of truth Truth-value semantics |
Computer science
| Axiomatic semantics Denotational semantics Formal semantics of programming languages Inheritance semantics Operational semantics Semantic integration | Semantic link Semantic network Semantic spectrum Semantic web Theory-based semantics |
User Comments Add a comment…