Semantics

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Semantics is the study of the meaning of linguistic signs that is, words, expressions, and sentences. Scholars of semantics try to answer such questions as “What is the meaning of (the word) X?” They do this by studying what signs are, as well as how signs possess significance that is, how they are intended by speakers, how they assign (make reference to things and ideas), and how they are interpreted by hearers. The goal of semantics is to match the meanings of signs what they stand for with the process of assigning those meanings.(Cann)

Semantics is studied from philosophical and linguistic (descriptive and theoretical) approaches, plus an approach known as general semantics. Philosophers look at the behavior that goes with the process of meaning. Linguists study the elements or features of meaning as they are related in a linguistic system. General semanticists concentrate on meaning as influencing what people think and do. These semantic approaches also have broader application. Anthropologists, through descriptive semantics, study what people categorize as culturally important. Psychologists draw on theoretical semantic studies that attempt to describe the mental process of understanding and to identify how people acquire meaning (as well as sound and structure) in language. Animal behaviorists research how and what other species communicate. (Goddard)


Semantics has many meanings to those who studied or are interested in this field. According to Richmond H. Thomason, semantics is the study of the meaning of linguistic expressions. The language can be a natural language, such as English or Navajo, or an artificial language, like a computer programming language.(373) Meaning in natural languages is mainly studied by linguists. In fact, semantics is one of the main branches of contemporary linguistics. Theoretical computer scientists and logicians think about artificial languages. In some areas of computer science, these d...