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*Date: [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/19th_Century 1893]
==Definitions==
*1 : the [[study]] of [[meanings]]:
:a : the [[historical]] and [[psychological]] [[study]] and the classification of [[changes]] in the signification of [[words]] or [[forms]] viewed as factors in [[linguistic]] [[development]]
:b (1) : [[semiotic]] (2) : a branch of semiotic dealing with the [[relations]] between [[signs]] and what they refer to and including [[theories]] of denotation, extension, [[Names|naming]], and [[truth]]
*2 : general semantics
*3 a : the [[meaning]] or [[relationship]] of [[meanings]] of a [[sign]] or set of signs; especially : connotative meaning
:b : the [[language]] used (as in advertising or [[political]] propaganda) to [[achieve]] a [[desired]] effect on an [[audience]] especially through the use of [[words]] with novel or dual meanings
==Description==
'''Semantics''' is the [[study]] of [[meaning]], usually in [[language]]. The word "semantics" itself denotes a range of [[ideas]], from the popular to the highly [[technical]]. It is often used in ordinary language to denote a [[problem]] of [[understanding]] that comes down to word selection or connotation. This problem of understanding has been the subject of many [[formal]] [[inquiries]], over a long period of time, most notably in the field of formal semantics. In [[linguistics]], it is the [[study]] of [[interpretation]] of signs or [[symbols]] as used by [[agents]] or [[communities]] within particular circumstances and [[contexts]]. Within this view, [[sounds]], facial [[expressions]], [[body]] language, proxemics have semantic (meaningful) [[content]], and each has several branches of study. In written language, such things as paragraph [[structure]] and punctuation have semantic content; in other forms of language, there is other semantic content.
The [[formal]] [[study]] of semantics intersects with many other fields of [[inquiry]], including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxemics proxemics], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexicology lexicology], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntax syntax], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pragmatics pragmatics], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology etymology] and others, although semantics is a well-defined field in its own right, often with synthetic properties. In [[philosophy]] of language, semantics and [[reference]] are related fields. Further related fields include [[philology]], [[communication]], and [[semiotics]]. The formal study of semantics is therefore [[complex]].
Semantics is sometimes contrasted with ''syntax'', the study of the [[symbols]] 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]].
The word semantic in its modern sense is considered to have first appeared in French as sémantique in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Br%C3%A9al Michel Bréal's] 1897 book, ''Essai de sémantique''.
In [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_scientific_vocabulary international scientific vocabulary] semantics is also called semasiology.
The [[discipline]] of Semantics is distinct from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_semantics Alfred Korzybski's General Semantics], which is a system for looking at the semantic [[reactions]] of the whole [[human]] [[organism]] in its [[environment]] to some [[event]], [[symbolic]] or otherwise.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantics]
[[Category: Linguistics]]
*Date: [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/19th_Century 1893]
==Definitions==
*1 : the [[study]] of [[meanings]]:
:a : the [[historical]] and [[psychological]] [[study]] and the classification of [[changes]] in the signification of [[words]] or [[forms]] viewed as factors in [[linguistic]] [[development]]
:b (1) : [[semiotic]] (2) : a branch of semiotic dealing with the [[relations]] between [[signs]] and what they refer to and including [[theories]] of denotation, extension, [[Names|naming]], and [[truth]]
*2 : general semantics
*3 a : the [[meaning]] or [[relationship]] of [[meanings]] of a [[sign]] or set of signs; especially : connotative meaning
:b : the [[language]] used (as in advertising or [[political]] propaganda) to [[achieve]] a [[desired]] effect on an [[audience]] especially through the use of [[words]] with novel or dual meanings
==Description==
'''Semantics''' is the [[study]] of [[meaning]], usually in [[language]]. The word "semantics" itself denotes a range of [[ideas]], from the popular to the highly [[technical]]. It is often used in ordinary language to denote a [[problem]] of [[understanding]] that comes down to word selection or connotation. This problem of understanding has been the subject of many [[formal]] [[inquiries]], over a long period of time, most notably in the field of formal semantics. In [[linguistics]], it is the [[study]] of [[interpretation]] of signs or [[symbols]] as used by [[agents]] or [[communities]] within particular circumstances and [[contexts]]. Within this view, [[sounds]], facial [[expressions]], [[body]] language, proxemics have semantic (meaningful) [[content]], and each has several branches of study. In written language, such things as paragraph [[structure]] and punctuation have semantic content; in other forms of language, there is other semantic content.
The [[formal]] [[study]] of semantics intersects with many other fields of [[inquiry]], including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxemics proxemics], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexicology lexicology], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntax syntax], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pragmatics pragmatics], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology etymology] and others, although semantics is a well-defined field in its own right, often with synthetic properties. In [[philosophy]] of language, semantics and [[reference]] are related fields. Further related fields include [[philology]], [[communication]], and [[semiotics]]. The formal study of semantics is therefore [[complex]].
Semantics is sometimes contrasted with ''syntax'', the study of the [[symbols]] 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]].
The word semantic in its modern sense is considered to have first appeared in French as sémantique in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Br%C3%A9al Michel Bréal's] 1897 book, ''Essai de sémantique''.
In [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_scientific_vocabulary international scientific vocabulary] semantics is also called semasiology.
The [[discipline]] of Semantics is distinct from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_semantics Alfred Korzybski's General Semantics], which is a system for looking at the semantic [[reactions]] of the whole [[human]] [[organism]] in its [[environment]] to some [[event]], [[symbolic]] or otherwise.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantics]
[[Category: Linguistics]]
