UB 01502:

MEANING
IN COMMUNICATION
CONTEXT
LESSON 2:
Study of Meaning

WHAT IS SEMANTICS?
Semantics

is the scientific study of meaning

communicated through language.
Semantics is the study of the relation between
form and meaning
Semantics is the study of the relationships
between signs and symbols and what they
represent.

WHAT IS SEMANTICS?
Semantics

is the branch of linguistics that

deals with the study of meaning, changes
in meaning, and the principles that govern
the relationship between sentences or
words and their meanings.

WHAT IS SEMANTICS?

An understanding of semantics is
essential to the study of language
acquisition (how language users acquire
a sense of meaning, as speakers and
writers, listeners and readers).
It is also essential to the study of
language change (how meanings alter
over time).

WHAT IS SEMANTICS?

It is important for understanding language in

social contexts, as these are likely to affect
meaning, and for understanding varieties of
language and effects of style.
The study of semantics includes the study of
how meaning is constructed, interpreted,
clarified, obscured, illustrated, simplified,
negotiated, contradicted, and paraphrased.

Some important areas of semantic theory or related

subjects include these:

Symbol and referent

Conceptions of meaning

Words and lexemes

Denotation, connotation, implication

Pragmatics

Ambiguity

Metaphor, simile and symbol

Semantic fields

Synonym, antonym and hyponym

Collocation, fixed expression and idiom
Semantic change and etymology
Polysemy
Homonymy, homophones and homographs
Lexicology and lexicography
Thesauruses, libraries and Web portals
Epistemology
Colour

 In

linguistics, semantics is the subfield that is

devoted to the study of meaning, as borne on the
syntactic levels of words, phrases, sentences,
and sometimes larger units of discourse,
generically referred to as texts.

 To

understand language we need to know the

meaning of words and the morphemes that
compose them. We also must know how the
meanings of words combine into phrases and
sentence meanings. Finally, we must consider
context when determining meaning.

Phonetics studies the

physical side of linguistic
utterancesthe
articulation and
perception of speech
sounds (articulatory,
acoustic and
auditory).
How to make the sound of
/k/ , /g/, /b/, /p/

Phonology is the study of

the sound patterns of
human language.
How the sound of /b/ and /p/
make a difference in
English [bad] and [pad],

How the sound of /p/ and

/d/ make a difference in
Malay [apa] and [ada],
[katak] and [kotak]

Morphology is the study of the

structure of words and the
smallest meaning bearing
units and how they combine
into words.
Malay
Mengasihi
meN + kasih + I
Termakan (ter+makan)
meN,teR,di dll

English
apples (apple + s)
writes (write + s)

Syntax is the study of the

formation of sentences, how
words are combined to larger
units than words, to phrases and
sentences that are well-formed
strings in a given language
Malay:

Ayam makan jagung

Jagung makan ayam
Jagung dimakan ayam

English: A letter written by John

John writes letter

Semantic is the study of

the linguistic meaning of
morphemes, words,
phrases, and sentences
English:This room is hot.
It is taking about the high
temperature in the room

Pragmatics is the study of

how context affects
meaning.
English: This room is hot
In other words:
-please open the windows
-please on the fan
-who switch off the air-con?

JOURNAL 2
2 examples of phonological differences in Malay
and English
2 example of morphological differences in Malay
and English
2 example of syntax differences in Malay and
English
2 example of semantic differences in Malay and
English
2 example of pragmatic differences in Malay and
English