The Study and Analysis of Semantics through the Lens of Linguistics Based On a Philosophical Approach

Abstract

Meaning is concerned with what a language expresses about the world in which we live or any imaginary or possible world. The study and analysis of meaning and its different angles is called semantics. Semantics is usually concerned with the investigation of the meanings of the words, expressions, sentences and sometimes to the meanings of utterances in discourse or the whole meaning of a text. There are different approaches in which meaning is studied in language. For example, philosophers investigate the relation between linguistic expressions, such as words of a language and people, objects and events in the world to which these words refer (e.g., references and signs). Linguists examine the way in which meaning is created in a language and differentiate among various types of meaning. Meanwhile, there are some studies on the semantic structure of the sentences (propositions). In this article, meaning is studied from different perspectives. It is hoped that this study could be useful and helpful to the field of philosophy.

Keywords

• semantics
• philosophy
• linguistics
• meaning