Definition

Semantics is a part of linguistics that refers to the study of meaning, changes in meaning, and the
relationship between sentences or words and their meaning. In other words, semantics is the study of
meaning of linguistic units, words, and sentence.

There are two subfields of semantics :

- Lexical semantics (the meaning of a word that involved it’s context)

The Scope of Semantics

a. Naming : The term naming is related to the terms sign (symbol), signified (concept), and signifier
(object). We learn some words through the naming process. Thus, naming is the process of
assigning names to objects. The process of getting the name of something is not only based on
the show the relevant object, but it has relation to the grammatical Identity.
Example :
b. Concept
c. Sense and Reference : The distinction between "sense" and "reference" is comparable to that
between ‘connotations’ and ‘denotations'.
 Sense : the semantic relations between one word and another, or more generally
between one linguistic unit and another. It is concerned with the intra-linguistic
relations.
Example : ..
 Reference : It is concerned with the relation between a word and the thing it refers to,
or more generally between a linguistic unit and a non-linguistic entity it refers to.
Example : ..
Every word has sense, but not every word has a Reference, for example, grammatical
words like but, if, and, it has Sense but it do not refer to anything.
d. The word : A natural units of semantics. The meaning of words is usually found in dictionary, but
not all words having the same kind of meaning as others.
 Full words : A word that has a meaning although it stands alone
Example :
 Form words : A word that has a meaning if it combined with the other word. Its belongs
to the grammar and have only grammar meaning.
Example :
The meaning of a word is not analyzable whole, yet it has relation to the initial cluster of
consonant. (for example)
e. The sentence : The meaning of a sentence can be derived from the arrangement of its words. In
spoken language, intonation, stress, rhythm, loudness, and other factors all influence sentence
meaning. When we use different levels of stress in sentences, the meaning changes. The
meaning in sentence distinguishes with the meaning of utterance.
 The sentence meaning : directly predictable from the grammatical and lexical features
of the sentence, it means that the meaning of sentence has close relation to the tense.
  The utterance meaning : includes all ‘’secondary’’ aspects of meanings, especially those
related to context, it means that the meaning of utterance involves grammatical
structure and also context of situation.

Lexical Semantics

The meaning of a word that involves it’s context, contextual relation is the important role to create a
meaning.

a. Synonym : different words that have the same meaning in the same language. (world and
universe, etc)
b. Antonym : word that is opposite in meaning.
 Gradable antonym > two words that are antonym usually pairs of words. The
characteristics can be modified by very, and it can be changed into superlatives and
comparative (big and small, good and bad)
 Complementary antonym > the members of a pair are complementary to each other.
(odd and even, boy and girl, male and female, etc)
 Converse antonym > It is the members of a pair do not constitute a positive-negative
opposition. They show the reversal of a relationship between two entities. (parent and
child, above and below, etc). It is the same relationship seen from two different angles.
c. Hyponym : an inclusive relationship where some lexemes are included in one word. (flower;
jasmine, rose, orchid. Furniture; table chair, desk, etc)
d. Homonym : the different lexemes with the same written and spoken, but different meaning. (?)
e. Homograph : the standard spellings of the lexemes are the same, but the pronunciation differs
and it also has different meaning. (?)
f. Homophone : pronunciations of the lexemes are the same, but standard spelling differs, and it
also has different meaning (ring and wring)