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User:Phlsph7/Semantics - Definition

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Semantics is the study of meaning in languages.[1] It is a systematic inquiry that examines what linguistic meaning is and how it arises.[2] It investigates how expressions are built up from different layers of constituents, like morphemes, words, clauses, sentences, and texts, and how the meanings of the constituents affect one another.[3] Semantics can focus on a specific language, like English, but in its widest sense, it investigates meaning structures relevant to all languages.[4][a][b] As a descriptive discipline, it aims to determine how meaning works without trying to prescribe what meaning people should associate with particular expressions.[7] Some of its key questions are "How do the meanings of words combine to create the meanings of sentences?", "How do meanings relate to the minds of language users, and to the things words refer to?", and "What is the connection between what a word means, and the contexts in which it is used?".[8] The main disciplines engaged in semantics are linguistics, semiotics, and philosophy.[9]

Semantics has both an internal and an external side. The internal side is interested in the connection between words and the mental phenomena they evoke, like ideas and conceptual representations. The external side examines how words refer to objects in the world and under what conditions a sentence is true.[10]

Many related disciplines investigate language and meaning. Semantics contrasts with other subfields of linguistics focused on distinct aspects of language. Phonology studies the different types of sounds used in languages and how sounds are connected to form words while syntax examines the rules that dictate how to arrange words to create sentences. These divisions are reflected in the fact that it is possible to master some aspects of a language while lacking others, like when a person knows how to pronounce a word without knowing its meaning.[11] As a subfield of semiotics, semantics has a more narrow focus on meaning in language while semiotics studies both linguistic and non-linguistic signs. Semiotics investigates additional topics like the meaning of non-verbal communicative behavior, conventional symbols, and natural signs independent of human interaction. Examples include nodding to signal agreement, stripes on a uniform signifying rank, and the presence of vultures indicating that a deceased animal is nearby.[12]

Semantics further contrasts with pragmatics, which is interested in how people use language in communication.[13] An expression like "That's what I'm talking about" can mean many things depending on who says it and in what situation. Semantics is interested in the possible meanings of expressions: what they can and cannot mean in general. In this regard, it is sometimes defined as the study of context-independent meaning. Pragmatics examines which of these possible meanings is relevant in a particular case. In contrast to semantics, it is interested in actual performance rather than in the general linguistic competence underlying this performance.[14] This includes the topic of additional meaning that can be inferred even though it is not literally expressed, like what it means if a speaker remains silent on a certain topic.[15] A closely related distinction by the semiotician Charles W. Morris holds that semantics studies the relation between words and the world, pragmatics examines the relation between word and user, and syntax focuses on the relation between different words.[16] Another contrast is between semantics and etymology, which studies how the words and their meanings changed in the course of history.[17]

The word semantics originated from the ancient Greek adjective semantikos, meaning "relating to signs", which is a derivative of sēmeion, the noun for sign. It was initially used for medical symptoms and only later acquired its wider meaning regarding any type of sign, including linguistic signs. The word semantics entered the English language from the French term semantique, which the linguist Michel Bréal first introduced at the end of the 19th century.[18]

Notes

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  1. ^ The study of meaning structures found in all languages is sometimes referred to as universal semantics.[5]
  2. ^ Semantics usually focuses on natural languages but it can also include the study of meaning in formal languages, like the language of first-order logic and programming languages.[6]

References

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  1. ^
  2. ^
  3. ^ Allan 2009, p. xi
  4. ^
  5. ^ Zaefferer 2019, p. 1
  6. ^
  7. ^ Griffiths & Cummins 2023, p. 12
  8. ^ Riemer 2010, p. 2
  9. ^
  10. ^
  11. ^
  12. ^
  13. ^
  14. ^
  15. ^ Griffiths & Cummins 2023, pp. 12–13
  16. ^ Bezuidenhout 2009, p. 875
  17. ^ Griffiths & Cummins 2023, p. 12
  18. ^

Sources

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  • Jackendoff, Ray (22 February 2013). "Constructions in the Parallel Architecture". In Hoffmann, Thomas; Trousdale, Graeme (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Construction Grammar. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-937663-6.
  • Zaefferer, D. (21 October 2019). "Introduction: Universals and Semantics". In Zaefferer, D. (ed.). Semantic Universals and Universal Semantics. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. ISBN 978-3-11-087052-7.
  • Jacobson, Pauline I. (2014). Compositional Semantics: An Introduction to the Syntax/semantics Interface. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-967714-6.
  • Griffiths, Patrick; Cummins, Chris (2023). An introduction to English semantics and pragmatics (3 ed.). Edinburgh Eniversity Press. ISBN 978-1-3995-0460-7.
  • Riemer, Nick (25 March 2010). Introducing Semantics. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-85192-3.
  • AHD Staff (2022). "Semantics". American Heritage Dictionary. HarperCollins. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
  • Crimmins, Mark (1998). "Semantics". Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780415249126-U036-1. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
  • King, Jeffrey C. (2006). Borchert, Donald M. (ed.). The encyclopedia of philosophy. 8: Price - Sextus Empiricus (2. ed.). Thomson Gale, Macmillan Reference. ISBN 0-02-865788-8.
  • Saeed, John I. (2009). Semantics (3 ed.). Malden, Mass: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-4051-5639-4.
  • Allan, Keith (2009). "Introducation". In Allan, Keith (ed.). Concise Encyclopedia of Semantics. Elsevier. ISBN 978-0-08-095969-6.
  • Bezuidenhout, A. (2009). "Semantics–Pragmatics Boundary". In Allan, Keith (ed.). Concise Encyclopedia of Semantics. Elsevier. ISBN 978-0-08-095969-6.
  • Gross, Steven (2016). "(Descriptive) Externalism in Semantics". In Riemer, Nick (ed.). The Routledge handbook of semantics. London New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-66173-7.
  • Hoad, T. F. (1993). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-283098-8.
  • Riemer, Nick (2016). "Internalist Semantics: Meaning, Conceptualization and Expression". In Riemer, Nick (ed.). The Routledge handbook of semantics. London New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-66173-7.
  • Jun, J. S. (2009). "Lexical Conceptual Structure". In Allan, Keith (ed.). Concise Encyclopedia of Semantics. Elsevier. ISBN 978-0-08-095969-6.
  • Lewis, David (6 December 2012). "General Semantics". In Davidson, Donald; Harman, Gilbert (eds.). Semantics of Natural Language. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-94-010-2557-7.
  • Fernández, Maribel (8 July 2014). Programming Languages and Operational Semantics: A Concise Overview. Springer. ISBN 978-1-4471-6368-8.
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