Semantics in Linguistics

Semantics in Linguistics

1. is the study of meaning communicated through language

   • Speakers of a language have a different types of linguistic knowledge
     • How to pronounce words
     • How to pronounce sentences.
     • About the meaning of individual words and sentences

2. Linguistic description has different levels of analysis

   • Phonology
     • The study of what sounds a language has.
   • Syntax
     • The study of how words can be combined into sentences.
   • Semantics
     • The study of the meaning of words and sentences.

3. Semantics and semiotics

   • Semantics is a very broad field of inquiry.
   • Semantics is the most diverse field within linguistics.
   • Semanticists have to have at least a nodding acquaintance with other disciplines.

4. Three Challenges in doing semantics

   • The firs is the problem of circularity.
   • The second problem is how to make sure that our definitions of a word’s meanings are exact.
   • The third problem comes from looking at what utterances mean in context.

5. Word meaning and sentence meaning

   • If an independent component of semantics is identified, one central issue is the relationship between word meaning and sentence meaning.

6. Linguistic Expressions

   • The language they are part of
   • The world they describe

7. Utterances and Sentences

   • Utterances
     • An utterance is created by speaking or writing a piece of language.
   • Sentences
     • Abstract grammatical elements obtained from utterances.