Semantic ​as one of the branches of pure linguistics is simply defined as the study of meaning in

language. before going any further, first thing that you have to know is the word meaning itself, which
becomes the focus of this study. ​Ferdinand de Saussure,​ one of the structuralism scholars introduces
seven dichotomies in the effort to understand language, one of them is ​signifiant​ and ​signifie
dichotomy. The first term refers to the form of language which is involved in a collection of phonemes,
or in other words ​signifiant​ ​is the acoustic form of language or the basic form of phonological system of
a language. Meanwhile, the second term refers to the mental image of a language, mental image refers
to the intended meaning of it. De Saussure tried to tell us that in a language there must be symbols and
thing that it's symbolized. The symbol can be so vary, it can be written, oral, and image, and the things
represented by those symbols are generally called meaning.

There are at least seven types of ​meaning (​ many linguists state their different categories of ​meaning)​ in
semantic according Geoffrey Leech (1974), those are:

1. Conceptual meaning​ (logical, cognitive, or denotative content)

It refers to the dictionary meaning which indicates the concepts. In reading we can find many different
words have the same conceptual meanings. Take the word walk as an example, the conceptual meaning
or the primary dictionary meaning is to move forward by placing one foot in front of the other. There
are also a few other words that, according to the dictionary, mean to move forward on foot, etc.

2. Connotative meaning ​(what is communicated by virtue of what language refers to)

It refers to the associations that are connected to a certain word or the emotional suggestions related to
that word. The connotative meanings of a word exist together with the denotative meanings. The
connotations for the word snake could include evil or danger.

3. Social meaning​ (what is communicated of the social circumstances of language use)

It refers to the usage of language in and by society which has big proportions in determining the
meaning that certain speaker has to use and wants to convey, those factors include social class of the
speaker and hearer and the degree of formality. Only part of the social meaning of a conversation is
carried by words. Take saying hello or talking about the weather. Often such talk has little dictionary
meaning. It is a way of being friendly or polite.

4. Affective meaning​ (what is communicated of the feeling and attitudes of the speaker/writer)
It refers to the speaker’s feeling / attitude towards the content or the ongoing context.It is important to
remember that each individual will have a different affective meaning for a word. As such, only the
person using a word will be aware of the particular affective meaning that they hold with the word. For
example, we can discuss the word winter further. The word winter denotatively refers to a time period
during which either the northern or southern hemisphere is furthest away from the sun.Different use of
stress and intonation also provides a striking contrast in the feelings and attitudes communicated
through an utterance.

5. Reflected meaning​ (what is communicated through association with another sense of the same
expression)
It refers to terms which have more than one meaning surfaces at the same time, so there is a kind of
ambiguity. It is as if one or more unintended meanings were inevitably thrown back rather like light or
sound reflected on a surface. For instance, if I use the medical expression chronic bronchitis, it is difficult
for the more colloquial emotive meaning of chronic, 'bad,' not to intrude as well. . . . Sometimes, such
coincidental, 'unwanted' meanings cause us to change a lexical item for another.

6. Collocative meaning​ (what is communicated through association with words which tend to occur in
the environment of another word)
It refers to the associations a word acquires on account of the meanings of words which tend to
occur in its environment.In other words, it is that part of the word-meaning suggested by the words that
go before or come after a word in question, for instance, heavy news (a piece of sad news); heavy
schedule (a very tight schedule); fast color (the color that does not fade); fast friend (a reliable friend);
fast woman (a lady of easy virtue), etc.

7. Thematic meaning​ (what is communicated by the way in which the message is organized in terms of
order and emphasis).
It relates to or constitutes a topic of discourse, the meaning that the word conveys is that of something
that is connected with the theme of something
Types 2-6 are also categorized as associative meaning.

What is semantic anomaly?

A semantic anomaly is a bit of language that does what it’s meant to do, but is abbormal. Like the word
‘troblem’ combining ‘trouble’ and ‘problem’, but there is a vast array of much more sophisticated
semantic anomalies than that. Some, such as the many new words (and ideas) introduced by Shakespere
become part of the language. Others, like ‘troblem’ (as of the present ) and even worse ‘gucsabn’ never
make the grade.

Contradictory​: A contradictory sentence (or a contradiction) is a sentence which is necessarily false,

because of the senses of the words in the sentence.

EXAMPLES: ​Elephants are not animals. Cats are fish. A man is a butterfly.

Presuppositions​: the propositions or beliefs assumed by an utterance.

Those people stopped smoking​ presupposes that (1) the designated people exist; (2) that the activity
called smoking exists; (3) that that activity is known to the hearers; and (4) that the designated people
habitually smoked in the past.

I. What is Ambiguity?
Ambiguity is an idea or situation that can be understood in more than one way. This extends from
ambiguous sentences (which could mean one thing or another) up to ambiguous storylines and
ambiguous arguments. It’s often viewed in a negative light, since we value clarity in writing and
ambiguity is the opposite of clarity; however, sometimes ambiguity can be a good thing, especially in
poetry​ and storytelling.

Ambiguity is similar to “vagueness,” except that ambiguity refers to something having multiple possible
meanings, while vagueness refers to a general lack of clarity; something vague might not have any clear
meanings while something ambiguous might have several possible clear meanings.
Entailment is a relation between sentence meanings, or propositions. (Sometimes, speaking loosely, we
talk as though it were a relation between sentences.) Presupposition can also be seen as a relation
between propositions, although many linguists (including George Yule) prefer to see presupposition as
strictly pragmatic, and a relation between a ​speaker​ and a proposition. In any case it is important to see
that these are two independent kinds of relations. A proposition which is presupposed in a particular
utterance may or may not also be entailed.

II. ​Entailment​ (||-).

A. A sentence (meaning) A entails B (A ||- B) if whenever A is true, then B must also be true. Entailment
is a very strong kind of implication. It is a semantic relation — thus, it holds no matter what the facts of
the world happen to be (it holds in all possible worlds).

B. Examples.

(1) a. Mary broke the window ||- The window broke

b. Sue and Fred went to the party ||- Sue went to the party

III. ​Presupposition​ (>>).

A. Presuppositions are implications that are often felt to be in the background — to be assumed by the
speaker to be already known to the addressee.
B. A good diagnostic: presuppositions are shared by members of ‘the S family’ — that is, they remain
constant under

1. Negation (denial)
2. Questioning
3. Embedding under modals (e.g. ​might, it is possible that)​
4. Embedding as the antecedent of a conditional (i.e. in an ​if-​ clause).

Example: A speaker of any of the sentences below would be presupposing ​that there is a king of France​.

A ​semantic field​ is a set of words (or ​lexemes​) related in ​meaning​. Also known as a ​word field, lexical
field, field of meaning​, and ​semantic system​.
Linguist Adrienne Lehrer has defined ​semantic field​ more specifically as "a set of lexemes which cover a
certain ​conceptual domain​ and which bear certain specifiable relations to one another" (1985).

Examples and Observations

"The words in a ​semantic field​ share a common semantic property. Most often, fields are defined by
subject matter, such as body parts, landforms, diseases, colors, foods, or kinship relations. . . .

"Let's consider some examples of semantic fields. . . . The field of 'stages of life' is arranged sequentially,
though there is considerable overlap between terms (e.g., ​child, toddler)​ as well as some apparent gaps
(e.g., there are no simple terms for the different stages of adulthood).

What is semantics? <ul><li>Semantics is the study of meanings of words, phrases and sentences.
</li></ul><ul><li>In semantic analysis there is always an attempt to focus on what the words
conventionally mean, rather than on what a speaker might want the words on a particular occasion .
</li></ul>
3. Conceptual meanings <ul><li>Conceptual meaning covers those basic essential components of
meaning which are conveyed by the literal use of a word. </li></ul><ul><li>For Example : Some of the
basic components of a word like needle in English might include “ thin sharp steel instrument”.
</li></ul>

4. Associative meanings <ul><li>In associative meaning you may have ‘associations’ or ‘connotations’
attached to a word, </li></ul><ul><li>For example : like needle which lead you to think of ‘painful’
whenever you encounter the said word. </li></ul><ul><li>This ‘association’ is not treated as a
conceptual meaning of needle . </li></ul>

5. Conceptual vs Associative meaning <ul><li>When linguists investigate the meaning of words in a

language they are normally interested in characterizing the conceptual meaning and less concerned with
the associative meaning of words. </li></ul><ul><li>However, poets and advertisers are very interested
in using terms in such a way that their associative meanings are evoked. </li></ul><ul><li>For example:
In the ad of Pepsi “generation next” or in Zong advertisement “sub keh do”. </li></ul>
6. Semantic Features <ul><li>How does semantic approach help us to understand the nature of
language? </li></ul><ul><li>It might be helpful as a means of accounting for the ‘ oddness ’ which we
experience when we read English sentences such as the follows: </li></ul><ul><li>For example: 1- The
hamburger ate the man. 2- My cat studied linguistics. 3- A table was listening to some music.
</li></ul><ul><li>Above sentences are syntactically right but semantically odd. </li></ul>
7. <ul><li>According to some basic syntactic rules for forming English sentences we have well structured
sentences . </li></ul><ul><li>The hamburger ate the man NP V NP </li></ul><ul><li>This sentence is
syntactically good, but semantically odd. Since the sentence “The man ate the hamburger” is perfectly
acceptable. </li></ul><ul><li>The kind of noun which can be subjects of the verb ‘ate’ must denote
entities which are capable of eating. </li></ul><ul><li>The noun ‘hamburger’ does not have this
property and man has . </li></ul>
8. SEMANTIC ROLES <ul><li>Words are not just a “containers” of meanings. They fulfill different “roles”
within the situation described by a sentence. </li></ul><ul><li>For example: If the situation is a simple
event such as The boy kicked the ball The verb ‘kicked’ describes an action. </li></ul><ul><li>The noun
phrases ‘The boy’ and ‘the ball’ describe the roles of entities such as people and things involved in the
action. </li></ul>
9. Agent <ul><li>The entity that performs the action is technically known as “agent”.
</li></ul><ul><li>For example: The boy kicked the ball. </li></ul><ul><li>As in the sentence one role is
taken by the boy and the boy performs the action, so it is agent. </li></ul><ul><li>Although agents are
typically human, they can also be non-human forces, machines or creatures. </li></ul><ul><li>For
example: The wind blew the ball away. The car ran over the ball. The dog caught the ball. </li></ul>

10. THEME <ul><li>The entity that is involved in or affected by the action is technically known as
“theme”. </li></ul><ul><li>For example: The boy kicked the ball. </li></ul><ul><li>In this sentence
“ball” is the theme because it is affected by the action performed by the ‘agent’. </li></ul><ul><li>The
theme can also be an entity that is simply being described, for example, The ball was red.
</li></ul><ul><li>The theme can also be human. Indeed the same physical entity can appear in two
semantic roles. </li></ul><ul><li>For example: The boy kicked himself. Here boy is agent and himself is
theme. </li></ul>

11. INSTRUMENT <ul><li>If an agent uses another entity in performing an action, that other entity fills
the role of instrument. </li></ul><ul><li>For example: She hit the bug with the magazine.
</li></ul><ul><li>In “writing with a pen” or “eating with a spoon” the phrases “a pen” and “a spoon”
have the semantic role of instrument. </li></ul>
12. EXPERIENCER <ul><li>When a noun phrase designates an entity as a person who has a feeling, a
perception or a state, it fills the role of experiencer. </li></ul><ul><li>If we see, know or enjoy
something, we do not perform any action. In this way we are in the role of experiencer.
</li></ul><ul><li>For example: Did you hear that noise? </li></ul><ul><li>The experiencer is “you” and
theme is “that noise”. </li></ul>

13. LOCATION <ul><li>When an entity is in the description of the event then it fills the role of Location .
(on the table, in the room etc). </li></ul><ul><li>For example: Mary saw a mosquito on the wall. In this
sentence “on the wall” is location. </li></ul>
14. SOURCE & GOAL <ul><li>Where an entity moves from is the Source and where it moves to is the
Goal . </li></ul><ul><li>For example: When we talk about transferring money from ‘savings’ to
‘checking’, the source is “savings” and goal is “checking”. </li></ul>
15. LEXICAL RELATIONS <ul><li>Words are not only the ‘containers’ or as fulfilling ‘roles’. They can also
have ‘relationships’. We describe the meanings of words in terms of their relationships.
</li></ul><ul><li>For example :if we are asked the meanings of word ‘conceal’ we might reply it is same
as ‘hide’. </li></ul><ul><li>The meaning of ‘shallow’ as ‘the opposite of deep’. </li></ul><ul><li>The
meaning of ‘daffodil’ as ‘it is a kind of flower’. </li></ul><ul><li>In doing so we are characterizing the
meaning of a word not in terms of component features, but in terms of relationship to other words.
</li></ul>
16. The types of lexical relations <ul><li>SYNONYMY </li></ul><ul><li>Synonyms are two or more forms
with very closely related meanings, which are often, but not always, intersubstitutable in sentences.
</li></ul><ul><li>For example: broad=wide, hide=conceal, </li></ul><ul><li>almost=nearly, cab=taxi,
liberty=freedom, answer=reply. [e.g. of synonyms are in pairs] </li></ul><ul><li>The idea of ‘sameness
of meaning’ used in discussing synonymy is not necessarily ‘total sameness’ . </li></ul><ul><li>For
example: Cathy had only one ‘answer’ correct in the test. Its near synonymy would ‘reply’ would sound
odd. </li></ul>

17. ANTONYMY <ul><li>Two forms with opposite meanings are called antonyms. </li></ul><ul><li>For
example: quick=slow, big=small, long=short, rich=poor, happy=sad, hot=cold, old=young, male=female,
true=false, alive=dead. </li></ul><ul><li>Antonyms are divided into two parts.
</li></ul><ul><li>Gradable antonyms: such as the pair big=small, can be used in comparative
constructions like bigger than =smaller than. </li></ul><ul><li>Negative of one member of the gradable
pair does not necessarily imply the other. For example: Dog is not old, it does not mean that dog is
young. </li></ul>

18. <ul><li>Non-gradable Antonyms: Such antonyms have “complementary pairs, comparative

constructions and negative of one member does imply the other. </li></ul><ul><li>For example : The
person is not dead, does indeed mean that person is live. </li></ul><ul><li>Reversives: It actually means
to reverse. For example: Tie= untie, enter= exit, pack= unpack, lengthen= shorten, raise= lower and
dress= undress. </li></ul>

19. HYPONYMY <ul><li>When the meaning of one form is included in the meaning of another, the
relationship is described as hyponym. For example: Daffodil= Flower, dog= animal, poodle= dog, carrot=
vegetable, banyan= tree. </li></ul><ul><li>The concept of “inclusion’ involved here.
</li></ul><ul><li>For example: If any object is a daffodil, then it is necessary a flower, so the meaning of
flower is included in the meaning of daffodil. Daffodil is hyponym of a flower. </li></ul><ul><li>We look
at the meaning of words in some type of hierarchical relationship. (Tree-Diagram). </li></ul>
20. HOMOPHONY <ul><li>When two or more different written forms have the same pronunciation, they
are described as “Homophones”. </li></ul><ul><li>For example: Bare – Bear, Meat – Meet, Flour –
Flower, Pail – Pale, Sew – So. </li></ul>
21. HOMONYMY <ul><li>Homonyms are words which have quite separate meanings, but which have
accidentally come to have exactly the same form. </li></ul><ul><li>The term homonym is used when
one form written or spoken has two or more unrelated meanings. </li></ul><ul><li>For example: 1-
bank= (of a river) bank= (financial institution) 2- bat= (flying creature) bat= (used in sports) 3- race=
(contest of speed) race= (ethic group) </li></ul>
22. POLYSEMY <ul><li>If a word has multiple meanings, that is called polysemic.
</li></ul><ul><li>Relatedness of meaning accompanying identical form is technically known as
polysemy. </li></ul><ul><li>For example: The word “head” is used to refer to the object on the top of
our body, on top of a glass of beer, on top of a company or department. </li></ul><ul><li>Another word
“foot” has multiple meanings such as foot of a person, of bed, of mountain etc. </li></ul>

23. MENTONYMY <ul><li>There is another type of relationship between words based simply on a close
connection in everyday experience. That close connection can be based on a container- contents
relation (bottle- coke; can- juice), a whole- part relation (car- wheels; house- roof) or a representative-
symbol relationship (king- crown; The President- The White House). </li></ul>

24. COLLOCATION <ul><li>Frequently occurring together is known as collocation. Words tend to occur
with other words. </li></ul><ul><li>For example: If you ask a thousand people what they think when
you say ‘hammer’, more than half will say ‘nail’, if you say ‘table’ they will mostly say ‘chair’ and for
‘butter- bread, for needle- thread, for salt- pepper. </li></ul><ul><li>Some collocations are joined pairs
of words such as salt and pepper or husband and wife. </li></ul>

25. QUESTIONS <ul><li>Q: What is semantics? </li></ul><ul><li>Ans: Semantics is the study of meanings
of words, phrases and sentences. </li></ul><ul><li>Q: What do mean by conceptual meanings?
</li></ul><ul><li>Ans: Conceptual meaning covers those basic essential components of meaning which
are conveyed by the literal use of a word. </li></ul>

26. <ul><li>Q: What are associative meanings? </li></ul><ul><li>Ans: In associative meaning you may
have ‘associations’ or ‘connotations’ attached to a word. </li></ul><ul><li>Q: Describe Agent?
</li></ul><ul><li>Ans: The entity that performs the action is technically known as “agent”. </li></ul>
27. <ul><li>Q: What do you mean by Theme? </li></ul><ul><li>Ans: The entity that is involved in or
affected by the action is technically known as “theme”. </li></ul><ul><li>For example: The boy kicked
the ball. </li></ul><ul><li>Q: What is experiencer? </li></ul><ul><li>Ans: When a noun phrase
designates an entity as a person who has a feeling, a perception or a state, it fills the role of experiencer.
</li></ul><ul><li>For example: Did you hear that noise? </li></ul>
28. <ul><li>Q: What is meant by Source and Goal? </li></ul><ul><li>Ans: Where an entity moves from is
the Source and where it moves to is the Goal . </li></ul><ul><li>Q: How many types of Lexical relations
have been discussed? </li></ul><ul><li>a) 5 b) 7 c) 6 d) 8 </li></ul><ul><li>Ans: 8 </li></ul>