Index IntroductionBasic divisionsLinguistic semantics and grammarIntroductionSemantics is the field of linguistics that deals with the study of meaning in language. Linguistic semantics has been defined as the study of how languages ​​organize and express meaning. Strangely, says RL Trask, some of the most important work in semantics was done from the late 19th century onwards by philosophers [rather than linguists]. Over the past 50 years, however, approaches to semantics have proliferated and the topic is now one of the most vibrant areas of linguistics (Language and Linguistics: The Key Concepts, 2007). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayThe term semantics (from the Greek sign) was coined by the French linguist Michel Bréal (1832-1915), commonly considered a founder of modern semantics. The technical term for the study of meaning in language is semantics. But as soon as this term is used, a warning is in order. Any scientific approach to semantics must be clearly distinguished from the pejorative sense of the term that has developed into popular usage, when talking about the way in which language can be manipulated to mislead the public. He might be reading a newspaper headline. “Tax increases reduced to semantics”: refers to the way a government was trying to hide a proposed increase behind a few carefully chosen words. Or someone might say in an argument, "This is just semantics," implying that the point is purely a verbal quibble, bearing no relation to anything in the real world. This type of nuance is absent when talking about semantics from the objective point of view of linguistic research. The linguistic approach studies the properties of meaning in a systematic and objective way, with reference to the widest possible range of sentences and languages. (David Crystal, How Language Works. Overlook, 2006)Basic divisionsBased on the distinction between the meanings of words and the meanings of sentences, we can recognize two main divisions in the study of semantics: lexical semantics and phrasal semantics. Lexical semantics is the study of the meaning of words, while phrasal semantics is the study of the principles that govern the construction of the meaning of sentences and the meaning of the sentence starting from compositional combinations of individual lexemes. The task of semantics is to study the basic literal meanings of words regarded primarily as parts of a linguistic system, while pragmatics focuses on the ways in which these basic meanings are used in practice, including such topics as the ways in which different Expressions are assigned referents in different contexts, and different expressions (ironic, metaphorical, etc.) to uses of the language. (Nick Riemer, Introducing Semantics. Cambridge University Press, 2010) The scope of semantics A perennial problem in semantics is the delineation of its topic. The term meaning can be used in various ways, and only some of these correspond to the usual understanding of the field of linguistic or computational semantics. We will consider the scope of semantics limited to literal interpretations of sentences in a context, ignoring phenomena such as irony, metaphor or conversational implicature. (Stephen G. Pulman, Basic Notions of Semantics. SRI International, Cambridge, England) The Scope of Semantics A perennial problem in semantics is the delineation of its topic. The term meaning can be used in various ways, and only some of these correspond to the usual understanding of the field of linguistic semantics or, 1998)