Semantics
Semantics (from Ancient Greek: σημαντικός sēmantikós, "significant") is the study of meaning.
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Description
Semantics focuses on the relation between signifiers, like words, phrases, signs, and symbols, and what they stand for; their denotation.
Linguistic semantics is the study of meaning that is used for understanding human expression through language.
Other forms include the semantics of:
In international scientific vocabulary semantics is also called semasiology.
The word semantics itself denotes a range of ideas -- from the popular to the highly technical.
In ordinary usage
It is often used in ordinary language for denoting a problem of understanding that comes down to word selection or connotation.
This problem of understanding has been the subject of many formal enquiries, over a long period of time, especially in the field of formal semantics.
In linguistics, it is the study of the interpretation of signs or symbols used in agents or communities within particular circumstances and contexts.
Within this view, sounds, facial expressions, body language, and proxemics have semantic (meaningful) content, and each comprises several branches of study.
In written language, things like paragraph structure and punctuation bear semantic content; other forms of language bear other semantic content.
Related fields of inquiry
The formal study of semantics intersects with many other fields of inquiry, including:
In the philosophy of language, semantics and reference are closely connected.
Formal studies may synthesize new principles from related fields.
Syntax and pragmatics
Semantics contrasts with syntax, the study of the combinatorics of units of a language (without reference to their meaning), and pragmatics, the study of the relationships between the symbols of a language, their meaning, and the users of the language.
Philosophy
Semantics as a field of study also has significant ties to various representational theories of meaning including truth theories of meaning, coherence theories of meaning, and correspondence theories of meaning.
Each of these is related to the general philosophical study of reality and the representation of meaning. See Philosophy.
Semantic HTML
See Semantic HTML.
See also
- Etymology
- Formal semantics
- Language
- Lexicology
- Linguistics
- Meaning (linguistics)
- Object-role modeling
- Philosophy of language
- Pragmatics
- Reference
- Semantic HTML
- Signifier
- Syntax
- Syntax (programming languages)
External links
- Semantics @ Wikipedia
