Semantics Theory CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

CHAPTER II THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK

2.1 Semantics Theory

Semantics is the study of meaning in language which does not only concern with the meaning, but also other relationship of meaning including language and cultures. Palmer 1981:1 stated that semantics is the technical term used to refer to the study of meaning, and since meaning is a part of language. In addition, he stated that ‘meaning’ covers a variety of aspects of language and there is no general agreement about the nature of meaning, or about the way in which it should be described. Semantics has long been an object of study within the philosophy. It is said that the term semantics itself was introduced into English at the end of the 19 th century. Before the introduction of the term in 1984, the word semantick was once used in the phrase semantick philosophy to mean ‘divination’ of which meaning, of course has nothing to do with ‘meaning’. The use of this term in English, perhaps can be traced back to the use of the French term semantique which was coined from the Greek in the previous year. In fact, the term semantics or semantique in French was not simply to refer to meaning but its development. Such as a concept of semantics has been even in use until the 20 th century as can be evident from ‘The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English’, published in1972, which defines of words. 8QLYHUVLWDV6 XPDWHUD8WDUD Semantics is the study of the linguistic meaning of morphemes, words, phrases and sentences. The basic areas of study are the meaning of signs and the study of relation between different linguistics units. Traditionally, semantics has included the study of connotative sense and denotative reference, truth conditions, argument structure, thematic roles, discourse analysis and the linkage of all of these to syntax. There are some definitions of semantics proposed by the linguists as follows: 1. Lyons 1977:1 says, “Semantic is generally defined as the study of meaning ”. 2. Palmer 1976:1 says, “Semantics is the technical term used to refer to the study of meaning”. 3. Hornby 1974:775 says, “Semantics is branch of linguistics concerned with studying the meaning of words and sentences”. 4. Katz 1972:1 says, “Semantics is the study of linguistic meaning. It is concerned with what sentences and other linguistic objects express, not with the arrangement of their syntactic parts or with their pronunciation”. It means that generally the basic principle of semantics is about the meaning.

2.2 Scope of Semantics