📖 What is Linguistic Semantics?

Linguistic Semantics is the study of meaning in language. It looks at how words, phrases, and sentences carry meaning and how people understand them in different situations. Instead of just focusing on individual words, it also considers context and how meaning is interpreted by speakers and listeners.

🔍 Key Areas of Linguistic Semantics

• 📚 Lexical Semantics: Studies the meanings of individual words and how they relate to each other.
  Example:
  • 🔹 Synonymy: Words with similar meanings (e.g., happy & joyful).
  • 🔹 Antonymy: Words with opposite meanings (e.g., hot & cold).
  • 🔹 Hyponymy: A general word and its more specific terms (e.g., animal → dog).
  • 🔹 Polysemy: Words with multiple meanings (e.g., bank: a place for money 💰 OR the side of a river 🌊).
• 🧩 Compositional Semantics: Explores how words combine to form meanings in phrases and sentences.
  Example: The meaning of “The cat chased the mouse” comes from the meanings of the words and how they are structured in the sentence.
• 🗣️ Pragmatics: Looks at how context affects meaning.
  Example: “Can you pass the salt?” is understood as a request, not a question about ability.
• ❓ Ambiguity & Polysemy: Some words or phrases can have multiple meanings.
  Example:
  • 🔹 Ambiguity: “I saw her duck” (Did she lower her head, or does she own a duck? 🦆).
  • 🔹 Polysemy: “Book” (Can mean 📖 a physical book OR 📅 to make a reservation).
• ✅ Truth Conditions: Evaluates whether statements are true or false in a given context.
  Example: The sentence “The sun is hot” is true because it matches reality.
• 🌍 Meaning & Reference: Examines how words relate to the real world.
  Example: The word “dog” refers to all dogs 🐶, but its meaning includes what makes something a dog.

In short, Linguistic Semantics helps us understand how language conveys meaning. It connects words, context, and interpretation to explain how we communicate and make sense of the world.