SEMANTICS STUDY OF MEANING AND REFERENCE

"Semantic"

Definition of Semantic

Semantics is one of the important branches of linguistics that deals with interpretation and meaning of the words, sentence structure and symbols, while determining the reading comprehension of the readers how they understand others and their interpretations. In addition, semantics construct a relation between adjoining words and clarifies the sense of a sentence whether the meanings of words are literal or figurative.

Definition from the Experts

“The word semantics is derived from the Greek semaino, meaning, to signify or mean. Semantics is part of the larger study of signs, semiotics. It is the part that deals with words as signs (symbols) and language as a system of signs (words as symbols)." (Hipkiss, 1995:ix)

“Semantics is the study of meaning communicated through language.” Saeed (2003:3)

"Semantics is the study of meaning in Language." Hurford dan Heasley (1983:1)

 "Semantics is the technical term used to refer to the study of meaning, and since meaning is a part of language, semantics is a part of linguistics." Palmer (1976:1)

Types of Semantic

There are two types of Semantics:

1.      Connotative Semantic

When a word suggests a set of associations, or it is an imaginative or emotional suggestion connected with the words, while readers can relate to such associations. Simply, it represents figurative meaning. Usually poets use this type of meaning in their poetry.

2.      Denotative Semantic

It suggests the literal, explicit or dictionary meanings of the words without using associated meanings. It also uses symbols in writing that suggest expressions of writers such as an exclamation mark, quotation mark, apostrophe, colon, and quotation mark etc.

Examples of Semantic from Literature

Example 1

Juliet: O, be some other name!

What’s in a name? that which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet;

So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d…

The above-mentioned quote, “That which we call a rose…sweet” is, in fact, conveying figurative meaning. However, its surrounding text clarifies the meanings. Juliet is using metaphoric language and arguing with Romeo that his family name is not important for her, because she only wants Romeo.

Example 2

The use of denotation or general meaning can be seen in the very first chapter of James Joyce’s A Portrait of An Artist As a Young Man, when Stephen expresses his feelings for his mother and father saying, “His mother had a nicer smell than his father.” This sentence is conveying a denotative or general meaning that he likes his mother than father. Thus the meaning is understandable and acceptable for all types of readers around the world. Hence, the general acceptability for all people is the major factor for communicating with people successfully.

Example 3

In the famous soliloquy of Hamlet, “To be or not to be” William Shakespeare has used a word that we use quite differently these days. Hamlet says that, “When we have shuffled off this mortal coil.” Here “mortal coil” carries a connotative meaning that suggests life. However, we are using coils in different connection today, which means a series of spirals tightly joined together.

Example 4

We can understand the use of semantic in the beginning of Hedda Gabler, in which Bertha mentions Hedda as, “she’s real lady wants everything just so.” This sentence lays emphasis on the implication that unlike Hedda, other women are not real, neither they have any discipline, nor sequence in the schedules of their life. In another dialogue, she says, “But, Lord! I never dreamed I’d live to see a match between her and master George.” Here, an exclamation mark highlights Bertha’s feelings of curiosity and astonishment. Her word choice, “never dreamed” shows her intensity of surprising emotions about class inequality.

Example 5

We can find use of semantic features in poetry more elaborately, as these features describe the meanings of sentences, phrases and words and make relation between them. These features include personification, simile, imagery, metaphor and allusion, etc. For example in William Blake’s poem Night, he uses all semantic features. The poet employs a simile to compare beauty of moon with flower, “The moon like a flower,” then uses a covert comparison between unlike things as, “And there the lions ruddy eyes, Shall flow with tears of gold”; here tears of gold illustrates the value of tears. Then, we see personification, “The feet of angels bright” and imagery, “The sun descending in the west,/The evening star does shine”, brings a picture in the minds of readers.

Meaning And Reference Branches of Semantics(1)

Meaning and Reference Branches of Semantics(2)

3.      Function of Semantic

The purpose of semantic is to propose exact meanings of the words and phrases and remove confusion, which might lead the readers to believe a word has many possible meanings. It makes a relationship between a word and the sentence through their meanings. Besides, semantic enables the readers to explore a sense of the meaning, because if we remove or change the place of a single word from the sentence, it will change the entire meanings, or else the sentence will become anomalous. Hence, the sense relation inside a sentence is very important, as a single word does not carry any sense or meaning.

Popular Semantics Books

Language in Thought and Action (Paperback) 

by S.I. Hayakawa (shelved 8 times as semantics) 

avg rating 4.22 — 2,465 ratings — published 1939

Top of Form

Semantics in Generative Grammar (Paperback) 

by Irene Heim (shelved 3 times as semantics) 

avg rating 3.74 — 175 ratings — published 1997

Top of Form

Semantics (Paperback) 

by John I. Saeed (shelved 3 times as semantics) 

avg rating 3.72 — 439 ratings — published 1996

Top of Form

Drive Yourself Sane : Using the Uncommon Sense of General Semantics (Paperback) 

by Susan Presby Kodish (shelved 3 times as semantics) 

avg rating 4.15 — 188 ratings — published 2000

Top of Form

Metaphors We Live By (Paperback) 

by George Lakoff (shelved 3 times as semantics) 

avg rating 4.09 — 10,236 ratings — published 1980

Top of Form

The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language (Paperback) 

by Steven Pinker (shelved 3 times as semantics) 

avg rating 4.04 — 41,968 ratings — published 1994

Top of Form

The Tyranny of Words (Paperback) 

by Stuart Chase (shelved 2 times as semantics) 

avg rating 4.34 — 705 ratings — published 1938

Applied Semantics

Applied semantics is the study and application of semantics which have many uses, for example, advertising, text analysis, web traffic of search engines, web page rankings, and the indexation of words. The term 'applied semantics' is widely considered to be first coined by Plantinga, where he distinguished the differences between "pure" and "applied" semantics.

Pure semantics is defined as semantics in the purely theoretical (sometimes referred to as mathematical) sense, whereas applied semantics is defined as the practical use of semantics, such as assigning meanings to words or deducing entailments. Dummet summarizes the distinction by terming pure semantics as "the merely algebraic notion of logical consequence" and applied semantics as "the semantic notion of logical consequence properly so called".

Example:

·         Semantic on Advertising

While earlier techniques relied on correlating specific words to ad placement, semantic advertising also takes the meaning of those words into account. Semantic search technology improves the accuracy and relevance of search results by interpreting the viewer's intent and the precise meaning of phrases. One example is that a viewer searching for information on a Dodge Charger will be presented with ads for parts or mechanics for that car, and not with ads for the San Diego Chargers football team.

·         Using Semantics on Search Engine

We all know there are variety of devices, there are different input methods, from typing a word on the keyboard of our computer or making a request directly to voice applications like Google Now.

These advances have moved us from former queries like “restaurants in manhattan,’ to more specific queries such as ‘where to eat Indian food in Manhattan’ or ‘what is the best place to eat Indian food in Manhattan’ . 

We can see two trends in this evolution: an increase in long tail queries and users requiring more precision, so search engines have had to adapt and provide more relevant results.

Search engines understood identifying keywords alone was not enough, instead, they needed to understand how the data was related, both with within the same site and through out the web.

It's how we get the meaning

e.g. semantics in real life(1)

e.g. semantics in real life(2)

e.g. semantics in real life (3)

Trends topic Semantics on Technology

Thanks to the expansion of the internet and the explosion of social media, the importance of semantic technology continues to grow. The semantic interpretation of content takes search beyond the border of keyword logic and into the network of relationships and connections between information and documents.

Inside the enterprise, unstructured information is made even more accessible by semantic technology, where the content of text documents, emails, social media posts and more is increasingly being recognized as a strategic asset.

References

https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/semantics

https://study.com/academy/get-started.html?

http://en.savefrom.net/#url=http://youtube.com/watch?v=I3t2VPcHwCw&utm_source=youtube.com&utm_medium=short_domains&utm_campaign=ssyoutube.com

https://literarydevices.net/semantic/

http://www.englishindo.com/2011/05/semantics-definisi-dari-para-ahli.html#ixzz4jIMAbyB1

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-semantics-advertising-70096.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_semantics

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-101-semantic-search-care/119760/

http://www.expertsystem.com/10-semantic-technology-trends-2014/