Semantics Definition: How Words Carry Meaning

Semantics definition: three uses

1. A field of study. The part of linguistics that looks at meaning: word meaning, sentence meaning, and how meaning changes. She took a course in semantics.
2. The meaning of something specific. The semantics of the word free are tricky, meaning its range of senses. Here a plural verb is sometimes used.
3. Mere wording. In arguments, semantics can mean a dispute over word choice rather than substance. Whether you call it a fee or a charge is semantics; you still pay it.

Computer scientists add a fourth, technical use: the semantics of a programming language is what each statement actually does when the program runs, as opposed to how it is written.

Semantics in sentences

• We spent twenty minutes on semantics before agreeing that a delay and a postponement were the same thing for this project.
• The lawyer argued about the semantics of the word reasonable in the contract.
• Semantics explains why bank can mean a river edge or a place to keep money.
• Some people call it a pause and others a freeze, but that is just semantics.
• The search tool tries to match the semantic meaning of a question, not only its keywords.

Semantics vs syntax vs pragmatics

A sentence can be perfect in syntax and odd in semantics, or clear in semantics but surprising in pragmatics. Pragmatics depends heavily on context, while semantics focuses on meaning the words carry by themselves.

Topics semanticists study

• Sense relations: words with similar meanings, opposite meanings, or one inside another (rose is a kind of flower).
• Multiple meanings: one word with several related senses, like head of a person and head of a company.
• Ambiguity: sentences with two readings, as in I saw the man with the telescope. See ambiguous.
• Connotation: the extra feeling around a word, such as thrifty versus stingy. See connotation.
• Meaning change: how words shift over centuries, for example nice, which once meant foolish.

Is it really just semantics?

The phrase just semantics is often used to wave away an objection. Sometimes that is fair: renaming a thing does not change it. But words can matter a great deal. In a contract, a law or a medical report, whether a term means may or must, employee or contractor, can change who pays, who is responsible and what is allowed. So before calling something semantics, ask whether the wording changes any real result. If it does, the debate is about substance. Insisting on tiny differences that change nothing can come across as pedantic.

Where the word came from

The French term sémantique was applied to the study of meaning in 1883, and English semantics follows in 1893. Both trace back to Greek sēmantikos, significant, from sēmainein, to show by a sign, and sēma, a sign or mark. The same Greek root appears in semaphore, a system of signaling with flags. An older English name for the field, semasiology, has mostly faded. For related terms such as syntax and idiom, turn to the grammar and writing pages, which pick up where this one stops.