Semantics
Semantics is the philosophical and linguistic study of meaning in languages (natural or artificial). This study can also be called semiotics, semasiology, or semiology [Britannica Online Encyclopedia].
Bréal established the term semantics at the end of the 19th century as a new science as opposed to phonetics – a science of sounds.
Semantics is also seen more narrowly as the investigation of meaning in the lexicon alone, involving modifications in the meaning. Later, in accounts in which the investigation of distributions was separated from that of meanings, opposed either to grammar in general or to a generative grammar, especially the syntax. Finally, of the uses everyday in the 21st century, many scholars narrow semantics to the study of meaning in abstraction from the contexts and pragmatics. Others define pragmatics as one of the branches of semantics. In others, its sphere is, in practice, very narrow: therefore, one handbook of modern semantic theory in the mid of the 1990s dealt only with problems in formal semantics, even the meanings of lexical items being neglected [Metthews, p. 361].
Semantics is the term referring to the study of meaning in language. It can be applied to whole texts and sentences or single words. For instance, “destination” and “last stop” practically have the same meaning, but students of semantics analyze their subtle shades of meaning [Vocabulary.com].
⠀ Matthews P.H. (2007). Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
⠀ Semantics. Britannica Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved from: https://www.britannica.com/science/semantics.
⠀ Semantics. Vocabulary.com. Retrieved from: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/semantics.