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.
Linguistic semantics is the study of meaning that is used by humans to express
themselves through language.

The scope of semantic

+Naming

the signifier is a word in the language and the signified is the object in the world that it
‘stands for’, ‘refers to’ or ‘denotes’. Words, that is to say, are ‘names’ or ‘labels’ for
things

+ Concept

A semantic concept is a coherent idea — a thing or a thought — that can be

represented in a variety of different ways, some of which are inevitably going to overlap
with the groups of ways that other semantic concepts can be represented.

+ Sense and Reference

Reference: relation between piece of language and the things in the world.
Sense: its place in a system of semantic relationships with other expressions in the
language.

Semantic Role

Definition:

A semantic role is the underlying relationship that a participant has with the main verb in
a clause.Semantic role is the actual role a participant plays in some real or imagined
situation, apart from the linguistic encoding of those situations.

Examples:
If, in some real or imagined situation, someone named John purposely hits someone
named Bill, then John is the agent and Bill is the patient of the hitting event. Therefore,
the semantic role of Bill is the same (patient) in both of the following sentences:

John hit Bill.

Bill was hit by John.

In both of the above sentences, John has the semantic role of agent.

Sentence, Utterance, and Proposition

A. Sentence

A sentence is a group of words that are put together to mean something. A sentence is
the basic unit of language which expresses a complete thought. It does this by following
the grammatical rules of syntax.

A complete sentence has at least a subject and a main verb to state (declare) a

complete thought. Short example: Walker walks, even though it has just the subject and
verb it conveys a meaning. However, sentences are not always simple in structure.
There are a number of categories in sentences such as simple sentences, compound
sentences, complex sentences.

B. Utterance

An utterance is any stretch of talk, by one person, before and after which there is
silence on the part of that person. An utterance is the use by particular speaker on a
particular occasion of a piece of language, such a sequence of sentences, or a single
phrase, or even a single word. Let us check some examples out below:

(a) “The plane now arriving is Garuda Airlines”.

(b) “Horses”.
(c) “Hummmpfh”’
(d) “Pxdgytguaargh”.

Sense and Reference

Reference : relation between piece of language and the things in the world. A referent is concrete object
or concept that is designated by a word or expression, for example :

Historically, there was only one person called George Washington, the first president of US, but he can
be referred to in a text in many ways, such as:

- the president

- Mr. Washington

- he

The different reference can have the same referent.

Example : morning star and evening star, both of which refer to planet Venus.

Sense : its place in a system of semantic relationships with other expressions in the language. Sense
consists of 'semantic properties'. Example:

Woman has a sense of animate, female, married.

Girl has a sense of animate, female, unmarried.

To know what a woman means, you have to know what a girl means, so that you get the idea why a
woman is different from a girl.

To make it simple, sense is the meaning of an expression, and if an expression refers to something, it has
reference.

Referring Expression

Referring Expression

Referring expression is any expression used in an utterance to refer to something or someone, namely
used with particular referent in the mind of the speaker.

For example:

“Belal called me last night”; I have a particular person in my mind when I say ‘Belal’, is a
referring expression. On the other hand, when I utter “There is no Belal in this class”, is not a
referring expression, because in this case I would not have a particular person in my mind.

Fred hit me (referring expression)

There’s no Fred at this address (not referring expression)

Semantic and Logic

Semantics is the science of the meaning of words and sentences, knowledge of the intricacies and shifts
in word meanings (KBBI, 2007: 1025). While logic is knowledge of the rules of thought or way of thinking
that makes sense (KBBI, 2007: 680). Logic is a branch of science that studies reasoning related to proving
the validity of an argument. Logic uses reasoning methods based on the validity of an argument. Logic
provides a method or systematic way of thinking (reasoning). There are two methods of thinking used,
namely the logic of propositions (propositional) and predicates (predicative). By using logic, it is
expected to reduce the errors of action in dealing with and solving problems, so that the problem can be
solved with an answer that is done systematically. In the semantic language analysis of logic examines
the meaning of the system seen from logic, referring to the word study of meaning or interpretation of
teachings, especially those formed in the logic system called semantics. The determination of the
nature of meaning within the boundaries of truth conditions is often interpreted as equating meaning
with the logical form of a sentence. In order to see the equation, consideration must be given to what is
usually mentioned in terms of logical forms. The most important thing is to return to the main goal
which is to arrange logic. (Wahab, 1996: 28) Example: a. Darwin was a human or Darwin did not die.
Darwin is dead. Because of that Darwin was a human. b. Darwin is a human and all humans die. Because
of this Darwin died.

Speaker Meaning and Word Meaning

Speaker meaning is what a speaker means (intends to convey) when he uses a piece of language.

Example of speaker meaning

A: “When I go next week, I’m taking your phone”

B: “Oh, are you? I need to communicate with my office partner”
When A in the above exchange says “Are you?” she is thereby in some sense taking up a position
opposed to B. It is an example of speaker meaning.

Word meaning or sentence meaning is what a sentence or word mean. There is often a divergence
between the meaning of the linguistic expression a speaker uses and the meaning he intends to
communicate by using it.

Example of Word meaning

A: “We are going to England next month”
B: “oh. Are you?”
When A in the above exchange says “Are you?” she is talking the truth to B. And it is called sentence
meaning.

Denotation, connotation, implication

Denotation

Denotation is generally defined as literal or dictionary meanings of a word in contrast to its connotative
or associated meanings. For example, were Juliet to look up the word 'rose' in the dictionary, she would
find something like, 'a bush or shrub that produces flowers, usually red, pink, white or yellow in color.'
Similarly, street names, like Sistrunk Boulevard or Northeast Sixth Street, tell people where they are and
help them get to where they want to go.

Connotation

Connotation refers to a meaning that is implied by a word apart from the thing which it describes
explicitly. Words carry cultural and emotional associations or meanings in addition to their literal
meanings or denotations. Below are a few connotation examples. Their suggested meanings are shaped
by cultural and emotional associations:

A dog connotes shamelessness or an ugly face.

A dove implies peace or gentility.

Home suggests family, comfort and security.

Implication

implication is meaning which a speaker or writer intends but does not communicate directly. Where a
listener is able to deduce or infer the intended meaning from what has been uttered, this is known as
(conversational) implicature.

For example : A: We are late! à It is mean that they must quickly.

Antonym, Synonym, Hyponym

Antonyms are words that have the opposite meaning. Antonym is the state or phenomenon have the
sense relation which involve the opposite of meaning.

The word pairs of antonym can be divided into several types :

Graded Antonym
Complementary Antonym
Relational Antonym

Synonyms are words with similar meanings.

Synonym is the state or phenomenon in which the words that sound different (different pronunciation)
but have the same or identical meaning as another word or phrase.

Example
Verb
1. Buy / Purchase     
2. Sell / Market        
Adjective
1. Big/ Large             
2. Beautiful/ Attractive/ Pretty/ Lovely/ Stunning
Adverb
1. Quickly / Speedily :
2. Gently / Slowly     
Preposition
1. On / Upon                         
2. Below / Down                 
3. In front /Ahead/ Afore       
Hyponym is a word or phrase whose semantic field is included within that of another
word, its hyponym or hypernym. Hyponymy is the more specific concept and the more general concept
is known as the hypernym. In other word, A hyponym is a word or phrase whose semantic field is more
specific than its hypernym.

pigeon, crow, eagle and seagull are all hyponyms of  bird (their hypernym); which, in turn, is a hyponym

of animal.

Other Examples are :

Mango- fruit ;
Car- vehicles ;
table- furniture ;
Hen - animal.

The verb ‘color’ has many hyponyms

 Word: color (hypernym)
  Hyponyms: blue, red, yellow, green, white, black, purple and pink.
Collocation, fixed expression, and idiom

A collocation is two or more words that often go together. These combinations just sound “right” to
native English speakers, who use them all the time. On the other hand, other combinations may be
unnatural and just sound “wrong”. Example:
- Natural English
The fast train
Fast food
Unnatural English
The quick train
Quick food
There are seven types of collocation:
Adverb + adjective
Are you fully aware of the implications of your action?
Adjective + noun
The doctor ordered him to take regular exercise.
Noun + noun
I’d like to buy two bars of soup please.
Noun + verb
The bomb went off when he started the car engine.
Verb + noun
He has been asked to give a presentation about his work.
Verb + expression with preposition
Their behaviour was enough to drive anybody to crime.
Verb + adverb
Mary whispered softly in john’s ear.

Fixed expression
Fixed expression is a collection of words (a phrase) which has one specific meaning. For example:
All of sudden
A bad egg
A pain in the neck

Idiom

Idioms is a phrase or expression whose meaning can’t be understood from the ordinary meanings of the
words in it. For example:
we’re in hot water
You really pu your foot in your mouth

Homonym, Homophones, and Homograph

Homonym as noun:

Homonym is used as a noun to describe each of two or more words having the same spelling or
pronunciation but different meanings and origins.

Examples:

Bear and bear

Can and can

Band and band

Kind and kind

Homophone as noun:

Homophone is used as a noun to describe each of two or more words having the same pronunciation
but different meanings, origins, or spelling

Examples:

Air and heir

Some and sum

Steal and steel

Tail and tale

Homograph as noun:

Homograph is used as a noun to describe each of two or more words spelled the same but not
necessarily pronounced the same and having different meanings and origins.

Examples:

Bow and bow

Bass and bass

Fine and fine

Row and row

Metaphor, simile, Symbol

METAPHOR

IS DESCRIBED AS "A FIGURE OF SPEECH THAT MAKES A COMPARISON BETWEEN TWO THINGS THAT ARE
BASICALLY DISSIMILAR."1 IN OTHER WORDS, IT DESCRIBES ONE THING IN TERMS OF ANOTHER. IT IS
COMPARATIVE, AND THUS GOES BEYOND A MERE DESCRIPTIVE ADJECTIVE (E.G. THE "BRIGHT MOON" IS
NOT A METAPHOR). A METAPHOR DESCRIBES ONE OBJECT AS BEING OR HAVING THE CHARACTERISTICS
OF A SECOND OBJECT.

EXAMPLES:

1.HER HOME WAS A PRISON

2. LIFE IS A JOURNEY, PURPOSES ARE DESTINATIONS, MEANS ARE ROUTES, DIFFICULTIES ARE
OBSTACLES, COUNSELORS ARE GUIDES, ACHIEVEMENTS ARE LANDMARKS AND CHOICES ARE
CROSSROADS.

SIMILE

A SIMILE IS A FIGURE OF SPEECH CONSISTING OF A COMPARISON USING LIKE OR AS. WELL-CHOSEN

SIMILES CAN BE USED TO ENLIVEN WRITING OR AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO DESCRIPTION USING
ADJECTIVES.

EXAMPLES:

He was as brave as a lion in a fight.

He swam like a fish through rough waters.

SYMBOL
Something that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention, especially a
material object used to represent something invisible.

EXAMPLES:

THE BALANCE IS THE SYMBOL OF JUSTICE

THE DOVE IS THE SYMBOL OF PEACE