Semantics in Linguistics

As we know, Semantics is the systematic study of meaning, and linguistic semantics is the study of how language organised and express meaning. It involves psychology, philosophy, and linguistics. It focuses meaning in discourse, and meaning grammatically, phonologycally, and lexically. It is from word to sentence, sentence to paragraph, paragraph to discourse.

Grammatical meaning
Morphological context, e.g

• student-students, inform-information

Syntactic context, e.g

• a smart student (noun phrase)

Sentence context, e.g

• Mayday is the labour day held on the first of May.
• The pregant woman should prepare the labour of the baby in the comfortable condition.

The Triangle

The Triangle (Odgen & Richard, 1923)

• Thought =concepts (Lyon); this conception is like ‘ghost in the machine’ (Palmer, 1976)
• symbol=language
• Referent=world

Semantics and Semiotics
Semantics gives only the part of a larger enterprise of investigating how people understand meaning.
There is a wider called as signification which is the process of creating and interpreting symbols.
Semiotics exists to study the use of signs systems which investigates the types of relationship that my hold between a sign and the object it represents.

Semantics and phylosophy
Thinking involving language and to be accure in arranging the symbols (language) is the basic of understanding of reality.

Semantics and psychology
Meaning is from the activity of stimulus-response

Semantics, anthrophology, sociology
Positioning that the language is as the social and cultural phenomena.

Semantics and literature
Meaning and figurative language

Semantics and linguistics
Language has a form and meaning.

Semantics and pragmatics
Semantics focuses on the form its meaning while pragmatics focuses not only from it but also considering its function.