What Is Semantics?
Semantics refers to the meaning of words in a
language and the meaning within the sentence.
Semantics considers the meaning of the sentence
without the context. The field of semantics focuses on three basic things: “the
relations of words to the objects denoted by them, the relations of words to
the interpreters of them, and, in symbolic logic, the formal relations of signs
to one another (syntax)" [1]. Semantics is just the meaning that the
grammar and vocabulary impart, it does not account for any implied meaning.
In this sense, there's a focus on the general
'rules' of language usage.
Pragmatic Word Usage
Pragmatic meaning looks at the same words and
grammar used semantically, except within context. In each situation, the
various listeners in the conversation define the ultimate meaning of the words,
based on other clues that lend subtext to the meaning.
For example, if you were told to, “Crack the
window,” and the room was a little stuffy, and the speaker had just said prior
to this that they were feeling a little warm, then you would know,
pragmatically, that the speaker would like you to open the window a 'crack' or
just a little.
If you were with a friend who was locked out of
his home, and you were standing at a back door trying to get inside, your
friend might say 'crack that window' and literally mean to put a 'crack' in the
window, or break the window.
Confused? Let's dig deeper.
Differences in
Meaning
As the example above
shows, considering both the pragmatic and semantic meaning of your sentence is
important when communicating with other people. Although semantics is concerned
only with the exact, literal meaning of the words and their interrelations, pragmatic
usage focuses on the inferred meaning that the speakers
and listeners perceive.
The following examples demonstrate the difference
between the two:
She hasn’t taken a shower.
He was so tired he could sleep for days.
In both of these examples, the context and pragmatic
meaning really define the sentence.
In the first, did the
speaker really mean to say that the woman has not ever taken a shower, not even
once? Although the sentence says just that, the listener in the conversation
may understand, based on other factors that the speaker means that the woman
they are referring to has not taken a shower ... today.
In the second example, we have a guy who is so tired
he can sleep for days. Is he really going to sleep for days? Semantically, we
would need to take that sentence to mean exactly that. But, in casual
conversation, the listeners and speaker might tell you that the guy was just
saying he was really, really tired, and using those words to convey that
meaning, instead of saying, 'he was really tired'.
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