Semantics: Linguistics and Meaning

What do you understand by semantics, as a major component of language, and explain denotative and connotative meanings with at least one example.

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) was a Greek philosopher, educator, and scientist. He was able to combine the thoughts of Socrates and Plato to create his own ideas and definition of rhetoric. He wrote influential works such as Rhetoric and Organon, which presented these new ideas and theories on rhetoric. Much of what is Western thought today evolved from Aristotle's theories and experiments on rhetoric.

of a word. Also, the Yerkes (2011) text defines Lexicology as a study focusing on the meaning of words. Thus, we see a lexicon as an area in the human brain which stores the meaning, and all aspects, associated with a word. However, to reach the point where a lexicon may be used language must be acquired. To acquire such a skill, one must master the four levels associated with language.

0 Semantics is the study of effect of the arrangement of words in a sentence.

Following the analysis of the historical process of the notions, the author’s tone of discourse turned

Changes over the last two hundred years has seen a marked increase in the evolution of semantics in the

This book is divided into 2 parts, the functions of language and language and thought. The deepest debt of the author in this book is to the general semantics. It is designed to educate the reader using concepts that are first explained in straightforward terms

The Language Wars have been waged in the realm of English Literature, Language and Linguistics for years. Both sides of the argument are staunch believers in their position, but are more than willing to concede points to the other sides’ favour. In Bryan A. Garner’s essay, “Making Peace in the Language Wars”, he describes himself as a ‘descriptive prescriber’ (Garner, Making Peace in the Language Wars 2008, 270), and offers a truce that fulfils both sides of the argument as the crux of his essay. While the separate sides of the argument are relatively easy to define, it seems that no one sticks to them religiously, and the argument is between individuals fighting over individual points. The two sides are that of the descriptivist and that

Semantics theory is the analysis of different explanation of how the different languages bear different meaning in their vocabulary, terms, logical and lingual expressions. Despite the differences in the different communities and languages, the words employed still make the same sense in their different languages. Knowing the parts of the language enhance the explanation of the semantics included thus helping explain the theory of semantics. The theory of semantics means the different methods that have been derived in explaining the difference in language yet universal comprehension of the languages.

Key features of language include its words and their sub structures such as morphemes, graphemes and syllables at the writing level as well as reading or speaking, words, their meanings and contexts in which the words get spoken or read. Language has to be interpreted as a whole, and not just as the specific word. There must be an explicit pattern or structure. In order for language to be understood correctly, the meaning of words must be arranged in a given context. This is what constructs language; even though words are arbitrary themselves, in order to integrate as a language, they must be used in the appropriate context. This pre-established cultural context is what will enable effective communication. (Daniel Willingham, 2007, p. 1).

Plato was interested in how we can apply a single word or concept to many words or things. For example how can the word house be used for all the individual dwellings that are houses? Plato answered that various things can be called by the same name because they have something in common. He called this common factor the thing’s form or idea. Plato insisted that the forms differ greatly from the ordinary things that we see around us. Ordinary things change but their forms do not. A particular triangle may be altered in size or shape but the form of a triangle can never change. Plato concluded that forms exist neither in space or time. They can be known not only by the intellect but also by the senses. Because of their stability and perfection, the forms have greater reality than ordinary objects observed by the senses. Thus true knowledge is knowledge of the forms.

Throughout twenty-centuries ago, writers thought that ordinary language and literary language were two different languages. But this is an analytical assumption. There is only one language, which

Our communication process or the way we attribute symbolic meanings to words and gestures, in order to express ourselves is shaped by the society in which we evolve. This shared use of codes within a given group of persons, also leads to a common philosophy of life, ideas or

In the transition from Principles of Mathematics to “On Denoting”, the linguistic expressions that count as denoting phrases change because of the way that Russell views denoting phrases. In 1903, the determiners that are primarily considered are “all”, “every”, “any”, “a”, “some”, and “the”. In “On Denoting”, Russell introduces “no” and “the most primitive of denoting phrases” such as “everything”, “nothing”, and “something”. Consequently, in 1905 Russell analyzes denoting phrases not restricted to the six determiners and focuses analysis on denoting phrases such as “something is hungry”, “everything is hungry”, and “nothing is hungry”. Furthermore, in the denoting phrase “an Athenian studied with the author of The Republic”, the

It has been noted that while considering changing word meanings is vital to the diachronic study of language, the notion and practice of studying them has been historically belittled as an intellectual pursuit. Semantic change is often irregular and arbitrary as a concept, as its causes are wide-ranging and multi-faceted. However, critics such as Willem B. Hollmann now give weight and notoriety to studying semantics synchronically . By considering individual cases, one can explain some word changes and apply common rules. These often occur intra-linguistically or through common social or political changes, especially surrounding class conflict. However, although we can catalogue the semantic change of similar or groups of words, word