Definitions

SEMANTICS is the study of MEANING in LANGUAGE.

The meanings carried by words may be affected by a speaker’s will.
Semantic theory deals with semantic facts, facts about meaning,

AIM of semanticists is to explain and clarify the nature of meaning. Semantics, like the rest of Linguistics,
describes. Semantics is an attempt to set up a theory of meaning. The linguistic approach aims to study the
properties of meaning in a systematic and objective way, with reference to as wide range of utterances and
languages as possible,

SPEAKER MEANING is what a speaker means (i.e. intends to convey) when he uses a piece of language.

SENTENCE MEANING (or WORD MEANING) is what a sentence (or word) means, i.e. what it counts
as the equivalent of in the language concerned.

THEORY is a precisely specified, coherent, and economical frame-work of interdependent statements and
definitions, constructed so that as large a number as possible of particular basic facts can either be seen to
follow from it or be describable in terms of it

The main difference between semantics and pragmatics is that the semantics studies the meaning of
words and their meaning within sentences whereas the pragmatics studies the same words and meanings
but with emphasis on their context as well. Both semantics and pragmatics are two main branches of study
in linguistics.

Notes and quotes

One must not equate meaningfulness with informativeness in a narrow sense. While it is true that many
sentences do carry information in a straightforward way, it is also true that many sentences are used
by speakers not to give information at all, but to keep the social wheels turning smoothly. (e.g. small
talk)

The same sentences are used by different speakers on different occasions to mean (speaker meaning)
different things.

The gap between speaker meaning and sentence meaning is such that it is even possible for a speaker to
convey a quite intelligible intention by using a sentence whose literal meaning is contradictory or
nonsensical.
It is not the business of semantics to lay down standards of semantic correctness, to prescribe what meanings
words shall have, or what they may be used for.

Semantics concentrates on the similarities between languages, rather than on the differences.
Semantic theory is a part of a larger enterprise, linguistic theory, which includes the study of syntax
(grammar) and phonetics (pronunciation) besides the study of meaning. It is a characteristic of Linguistics
as a whole that it concentrates on the similarities between languages.
3 conceptions of meaning

 Words -> things

Word ‘name’ or ‘refer’ to things – Pluto’s view. However, the majority of word seem unable to be related
to things, in any clearer way (tradition, popular)

 Words -> concepts -> things

‘Semiotic triangle’ by Ogden and
Richards:

 Stimuli -> words -> responses

L. Bloomfield – behaviorist view: meaning is
something that can be deduced solely from a
study of the situation in which speech is used –
the stimulus (S) that led to someone to speak (r),
and the response (R) that resulted from this
speech (s):

S-------------r……………s --------
----- R