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Oxford Dictionary, Semantics is the branch of linguistics dealing with the meaning of words and sentences.
From definitions above, it could be concluded that Semantic is a study of meaning of a word and sentence.
2.2 Scope of Semantics
Based on the definitions above, everybody would agree that Semantic is a study of meaning, and the main point of Semantic is meaning itself.
There are at least two major approaches to know how the way meaning in a language is studied. The first is linguistic approach. The second is philosophical
approach. Philosophers have investigated the relation between linguistic expression, such as the words of language and the persons, things and events in the world to
which these words refer. There are three basic terms of semantics, i.e 1 meaning, 2 sense, and 3
reference.
2.2.1 Meaning
This word ‘meaning’ is derived from the word ‘mean’. In the Advanced English learners’ Dictionary, meaning is defined as the thing or idea that a sound,
word, sign, etc, represents. There are many theories about meaning in semantics created by linguists.
Basically, the linguists and philosophers discuss meaning in related between language utterance, thought, and reality. Generally, theory of meaning is divided
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into referential or corespondencial theory, contextual theory, mentalism theory, and formalism theory. They will be explained below :
Referential theory Ogden and Richards in Parera 1990: 16 state that meaning is the
relation between reference and referent which is uttered in language sound symbol, words or phrase or sentence. This theory concerns with the direct
relation between reference and referent in the real life. Mentalism theory
This theory is contrasted to referential theory. Glucksberg and Danks in Parera 1990: 17 state “the set of possible meaning in any given word is
the set of possible feelings, images, ideas, concepts, thoughts, and inferences that a person might produce when that word in heard and processed.”
Usually the proponents of this theory are the psycholinguists. Contextual theory
This theory is collaterally with relativism theory in semantic inter- language comparison. The meaning of a word is related to cultural and
ecology environment the language user from. So, if the word has separated with the context, it will be meaningless.
‘Meaning in use’ theory This theory in found by Wittgenstein 1830-1858. He assumes that
word is impossibly meaningful for all context because context changes everytime.
Wittgenstein in Parera 1990: 18 states :
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“Jangan menanyakan
makna sebuah
kata, tanyakanlah
pemakaiannya” “don’t ask for the meaning of a word, ask for the use”
One of the lacks of this theory is how to decide the concept of “use” well, it is like this theory is the beginning of Pragmatics theory.
2.2.2 Sense and Reference
