Semantics is the study of the meaning of words, which are organized into fields such as actions, descriptions, humans, and perception. Defining fields is difficult due to overlapping meanings and polysemous words. Fields include verbs, adjectives, physical world, human biology and emotions, language, art, judgment, thought, and perception.
There are a large number of fields of semantics, ranging from actions to emotions. A semantic field is a group of words with a similar meaning that are always of the same grammatical class. This makes it difficult to define broad or narrow fields because many words can be scattered among different words. In its most simplistic sense, such fields represent object types, actions, qualities, and descriptions.
Semantics is the study of the meaning of words. Try not only to ascertain that an apple is an apple, but also why it is called an apple. This study is divided into words, sentences, signs and symbols. Each of these types is called a signifier. This discipline often combines well with other modes of language study, such as lexicography, etymology, syntax and philology.
Fields are organized according to the meaning of words and are similar to lexical field theory as postulated by Jost Trier in 1931. The theory holds that many words acquire their meaning due to a relationship to another word. That’s why, for example, the English language uses “sanctuary” and “santify” as well as “mortuary” and “mortify.”
The main problem with combining semantic fields, as Trier points out, is that many words have overlapping meanings. This means that some words will have to be entered in different fields depending on their meaning at that moment. Words with many meanings such as “set” are called polysemous words and are placed in many fields. It is also common for words like “man” to undergo a semantic shift, changing both their meaning – in this case, from “human being” to a “male man” – and their field.
Defining fields comes down to personal opinion. Many fields can be broken down into actions, descriptions, humans, and perception, and are then broken down into more specific categories.
Actions cover verbs in any lexicon. Verbs and actions are divided by group or function. These could be aggressive or passive, as in the difference between seeing and looking. Such actions also include processes in the world and how a language describes how the world works.
Descriptions are adjectives that can be broken down into objective and subjective. Objective adjectives are those that are innate and are not an opinion. The objective adjective fields of semantics include colors, sizes, materials, and textures. The subjective ones depend on a personal opinion and include good and bad.
The physical world ranges from descriptions of the universe to the biological makeup of a single cell or atom. Includes the basics, topography and geology. It also includes words for animals, plants, fungi, and other life forms.
Human-based fields include purely biological names for body parts and their functions. They also include human emotions, which can be divided in many ways, for example, into positive and negative. Other fields of human semantics include language, art, judgment and thought.
Perception is broken down into its central elements. These include subjective perceptions such as spatial awareness and the senses as well as objective perceptions including time.
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