In [[programming language theory]], '''semantics''' is the field concerned with the rigorous mathematical study of the meaning of [[programming language]]s.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Joseph Goguen|Joseph A. Goguen]] |chapter=Semantics of computation |title=Category Theory Applied to Computation and Control |series=Lecture Notes in Computer Science |publisher=[[Springer Publishing|Springer]] |date=1975 |volume=25 |pages=151–163 |doi=10.1007/3-540-07142-3_75|isbn=978-3-540-07142-6 }}</ref> ItSemantics does so by evaluating the meaning ofassigns [[programmingcomputation]]al languagemeaning syntax|syntactically]]to valid [[string (computer science)|strings]] defined byin a specific [[programming language,showing the computation involved. In such a case that the evaluation would be of [[Syntax error|syntactically invalidsyntax]] strings, the result would be non-computation.
'''Semantics''' describes the processes a computer follows when [[Execution (computing)|executing]] a program in that specific language. This can be shown by describing the relationship between the input and output of a program, or an explanation of how the program will be executed on a certain [[computer platform|platform]], hence creating a [[model of computation]].
