What do semantics mean?
Whilst I’d love to have this discussion with you, I think you might have wanted to put this in IMHO. I’ll just report it for you.
That’s just, like, your opinion man.
Semantics means the study of meaning, i.e., what words and other symbols mean.
In linguistics, semantics refers to the study of meaning within language: how people disambiguate different meanings of the same word, how thematic roles are assigned, and generally how people go from sounds and words to meaning. This is distinct from phonology (how sounds are made, recognized, and classified), morphology (how cases, affixes, etc. change words), syntax (how words are arranged into meaningful sentences), and so on. Sentences like “Colorless green ideas sleep furiously,” are perfectly grammatical but don’t make any sense. On the other hand, sentences like, “The gostak distims the doshes,” are easy to parse— there’s something called a ‘gostak’ that’s doing an action called ‘distimming’ to something called ‘doshes’— without knowing what half the words in the sentence actually mean.
Another note: Although the noun semantics appears to be an English plural noun, it’s actually an English singular noun.
I wanted it here.
Just 'cause?
I am waiting for an argument.
why?
So sorry, this is “Abuse;” you want the Monty Python thread down the hall in Cafe Society.
OP: There’s a difference in usage. For some (perhaps most, even) people, the term semantics is merely an insult for another person’s position. For linguists, the term is the name of a particular branch of linguistics. See here for the definition of the term and a cultural note regarding its dismissive use.
Now, if you’re looking for an argument, you should present your side of the argument. If you’re looking for a debate about the term, you should pose a coherent position and present that in GD. If you’re curious as to what the the term means to various posters, then IMHO is likely the right place. All you did in your OP was pose a question, the answer which is easily obtained, and that should’ve been in GQ.
So, what’re you getting at?
If only there was this electronic connection between many different people from many different places that one could access to discover this information.
Of look up the god damn word in a fucking dictionary. That works too.
It does not, you silly sausage!
I quirk my eyebrow at you.
:dubious:
It’s like what the definition of “is” is.
Moved to IMHO.
That would depend on what you mean by “moved,” wouldn’t it?
So that’s an ixnay on the argument, then? I was waiting for a humdinger!
slow clap