Semantics

Pronunciation

• IPA: /sɪˈmæntɪks/

Origin

From French sémantique, displacing earlier semasiology.

Noun

1. (linguistics) A branch of linguistics studying the meaning of words. 1893Semantics is a foundation of lexicography.
2. The study of the relationship between words and their meanings.
• 2006, Patrick Blackburn, Johan Bos, and Kristina Striegnitz, Learn Prolog Now!, section 8.1:In fact, nowadays a lot is known about the semantics of natural languages, and it is surprisingly easy to build semantic representations which partially capture the meaning of sentences or even entire discourses.
3. The individual meanings of words, as opposed to the overall meaning of a passage.The semantics of the terms used are debatable.The semantics of a single preposition is a dissertation in itself.

Derived terms

• algebraic semantics
• axiomatic semantics
• computational semantics
• denotational semantics
• formal semantics
• lexical semantics
• mathematical semantics
• operational semantics
• statistical semantics

Related terms

• seme
• sememe
• semantic
• semasiology
• sematic
• sematology
• semiotic
• semiotics