I.
INTRODUCTION
Linguistics is a scientific study of
language. Linguistics encompasses a number of subfields. An important topical
division is between the study of language structure (grammar) and the study of
meaning (semantics and pragmatics).
Grammar encompasses morphology (the formation and composition of words), syntax (the rules that determine how
words combine into phrases andsentences)
and phonology (the study of sound
systems and abstract sound units). Semantics is also a component of linguistics
of the samekind as grammar. It encompasses the meaning of words, sentences, and
utterances; pragmatics studies the way in which context contributes to meaning
of the speaker. In this paper, we will discuss about basic ideas of semantics
such as sentence, utterance, and proposition. We are studying what is known as
semantics: how words have individual meaning, and can be used to refer to
entities in the external world (reference).
II.
BASIC IDEAS IN SEMANTICS
ABOUT
SEMANTICS
The
word "semantics" itself denotes a range of ideas, from the popular to
the highly technical. It is often used inordinary 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, 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 lexicon,
syntax, pragmatics, 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. In linguistics,
semantics is the subfield dealing with the study of meaning, as inherent at the
levels of words, phrases, sentences, and larger units of discourse (referred to as texts). The basic
area of study is the meaning of signs,
and the study of relations between different linguistic units: homonymy,
synonymy, antonymy, polysemy, paronyms, hypernymy, and hyponymy. A key
concern is how meaning attaches to larger chunks of text, possibly as a result
of the composition from smaller units of meaning. Traditionally, semantics has
included the study of sense and denotative reference, truth conditions,
argument structure, thematic roles, discourse analysis,and the linkage of all
of these to syntax.
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