Name : Sulistiana Ulpa

Reg. No : 1952041046

Class : PBI C 2019

Course : Semantics

1. Explain the following terms:

a. Semantics
The word “semantics” derives from Greek “semainein” means “to signify”.
Others say “semantikos”, gives signs from the word “sema” means “sign” the
study of the linguistic meaning of morphemes, words, phrases, and sentences
is called semantics without context or non-linguistic.

Semantics is a branch of linguistics that studies the meanings / meanings

contained in language, codes, or other types of representations. In other words,
semantics is the study of meaning. Semantics is usually associated with two
other aspects: syntax, complex symbol formation from simpler symbols, and
pragmatics, the practical use of symbols by people in certain contexts.

According to J.W.M Verhaar; 1981:9 Argues that semantics (English:

semantics) means the theory of meaning or theory of meaning, namely the
systematic branch of language that investigates meaning or meaning.

b. Lexical semantics
Lexical semantics, as a subfield of linguistics semantics which is concerned
with the meaning of words, the meanings of relationships among words. When
one needs to know the meaning of a word, the typical response is to pick up a
dictionary. This dictionary definition is known as the word’s denotation.
Lexical semanticists are most interested in the open classes of noun, verb and
adjective and with more ‘contentful’ members of the adverb and preposition
classes (for instance over but not of). Lexical semantics is thus mostly exempt
from considering issues that arise from the use of grammatical words, such as
definiteness and modality.

c. Phrasal or sentencial semantics

Phrasal or sentential semantics, which is concerned with the meanings of
syntactic units larger than the word (Fromkin, Rodman & Hyams). Phrasal
semantics concerns concepts such as paraphrase, contradiction, ambiguity,
mutual entailment, etc.
2. In general, forms and meanings are arbitrarily related. Explain with example!
The relation between the form(phonetic shape) and meaning is arbitrary. Note that the
relationship of the form to meaning is largely arbitrary. This is quite easily proven to
be true. Firstly, if meaning is linked to form then naturally all languages will have the
same form for the exact same meaning. This is obviously not true by observation of
any two language. Secondly, meaning changes over time for a form. An example of
this is ‘gay’. Two hundred years ago this word had meant ‘happy’. Today it signifies a
social group. Furthermore, ‘gay’ no longer has negative connotations that it did just
30 years ago.

But in linguistics, it is not form and meaning but form-meaning, one word. The proper
terms used for form-meaning, form and meaning are sign, signifier and signified
respectively.

Finally, signs can represent either real things or imaginary concepts. As long as these
things or concepts are considered coherent they can be given a form, and turned into a
sign by a language community.

3. The meanings of most sentences must be constructed by the application of semantics

rules. Analyse the following sentences:

a. I slept soundly.

NP VP

I Slept

➢ I : jack refers to (or means) the individual

➢ Slept : not an individual or a set of individual
Slept means to take rest in (a specified kind of sleep)
➢ Soundly is an adverb
b. I killed the snake.

NP VP

I
V NP

Killed Snake

NP : I
VP : Killed
NP : Snake

X is I and Y is the snake, where I is doing the job (killed) and the snake who gets the
job. (X adalah I dan Y adalah snake, dimana I yang melakukan pekerjaan dan the
snake yang dikenai pekerjaan yaitu killed).