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Semantics (from ''sēmantikós'', "significant")〔The word is derived from the Ancient Greek word (''semantikos''), "related to meaning, significant", from ''semaino'', "to signify, to indicate", which is from ''sema'', "sign, mark, token". The plural is used in analogy with words similar to ''physics'', which was in the neuter plural in Ancient Greek and meant "things relating to nature".〕 is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between ''signifiers'', like words, phrases, signs, and symbols, and what they stand for; their denotation. Linguistic semantics is the study of meaning that is used for understanding human expression through language. Other forms of semantics include the semantics of programming languages, formal logics, and semiotics. In international scientific vocabulary semantics is also called ''semasiology''. The word ''semantics'' itself denotes a range of ideas—from the popular to the highly technical. It is often used in ordinary language for denoting a problem of understanding that comes down to word selection or connotation. This problem of understanding has been the subject of many formal enquiries, over a long period of time, especially in the field of formal semantics. In linguistics, it is the study of the interpretation of signs or symbols used in agents or communities within particular circumstances and contexts.〔 Within this view, sounds, facial expressions, body language, and proxemics have semantic (meaningful) content, and each comprises several branches of study. In written language, things like paragraph structure and punctuation bear semantic content; other forms of language bear other semantic content. The formal study of semantics intersects with many other fields of inquiry, including lexicology, syntax, pragmatics, etymology and others. Independently, semantics is also a well-defined field in its own right, often with synthetic properties.〔Cruse, Alan; ''Meaning and Language: An introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics'', Chapter 1, Oxford Textbooks in Linguistics, 2004; Kearns, Kate; ''Semantics'', Palgrave MacMillan 2000; Cruse, D. A.; ''Lexical Semantics'', Cambridge, MA, 1986.〕 In the philosophy of language, semantics and reference are closely connected. Further related fields include philology, communication, and semiotics. The formal study of semantics can therefore be manifold and complex. Semantics contrasts with syntax, the study of the combinatorics of units of a language (without reference to their meaning), and pragmatics, the study of the relationships between the symbols of a language, their meaning, and the users of the language. Semantics as a field of study also has significant ties to various representational theories of meaning including truth theories of meaning, coherence theories of meaning, and correspondence theories of meaning. Each of these is related to the general philosophical study of reality and the representation of meaning. ==Linguistics== In linguistics, semantics is the subfield that is devoted to the study of meaning, as inherent at the levels of words, phrases, sentences, and larger units of discourse (termed ''texts'', or ''narratives''). The study of semantics is also closely linked to the subjects of representation, reference and denotation. The basic study of semantics is oriented to the examination of the meaning of signs, and the study of relations between different linguistic units and compounds: homonymy, synonymy, antonymy, hypernymy, hyponymy, meronymy, metonymy, holonymy, paronyms. A key concern is how meaning attaches to larger chunks of text, possibly as a result of the composition from smaller units of meaning. Traditionally, semantics has included the study of ''sense'' and denotative ''reference'', truth conditions, argument structure, thematic roles, discourse analysis, and the linkage of all of these to syntax. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「semantics」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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