Semantics: An introduction to meaning

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today, we have around 7.000 languages around the world, each with its own words, grammar, vocabulary and structure.

 The scientific study of language is called linguistics, it is how languages work, how different elements are combined together and how they have been identified as meaningful elements, check previous article ( Linguistics: An introduction).

 Semantics is the 3rd level in linguistics which studies meaning. 

 The term semantics was coined by the French philologist Michel Bréal in the late 19th century, where he connected it with the term semiotics ( brought by the famous swiss philologist and semiotician Ferdinand De Saussure, Semiotics is the study of signs " signifier and signified")

 Meaning is that essential aspect of a language, it is the interpretation of the received word, symbol and sounds. Semantics deals with the understanding of the direct (clear) meaning of a word or combined words that form a sentence ( a sentence is an abstract level in linguistics where all linguistic levels are found).

 To understand the meaning, we need what is called the linguistic skills or what is known as the four skills of language learning which are: writing, listening, speaking and reading, furthermore, we need also the control of all language levels which are ( phonology, grammar, syntax and semantics) 
The linguistic skills

 Steven Pinker ( a canadian psychologist) said : Semantics is about the relation of words to thoughts, but it is also about the relation of words to other human concerns. Semantics is about the relation of words to reality - we may say that speakers commit themselves to a shared understanding of the truth, and the way their thoughts are anchored to things and situations in the world

Michel Bréal ( 1832 -  1915 )  
Michel Bréal ( a French philologist) distinguished between Semantics and linguistic semantics. he defined the first as the study of meaning, and the second as the study of meaning according to the vocabulary and the grammar of that language.

 he further pointed out that semantics is a systematic study of language linked with 3 disciplines, mainly: Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics.







Semantics studies meaning in two sides ( words meaning which is lexical semantics ), and sentence meaning ( compositional semantics).

 Language is a very complex phenomenon that has various fields of study, it is such a deep field and meaning on the other hand, as a field of study is a widely spread and many scholars have a different perspective about it. 

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