Chapter 6 Semantics: The Analysis of Meaning

6.1 The study of meaning

　 Semantics is defined as the study of meaning. Nevertheless, semantics is not the only discipline that studies meaning. Philosophy (particularly semiotics as one of its branches), psychology, and anthropology are all concerned with the study of meaning. This is due to the complex nature of meaning.

　 The verb "mean" has various meanings in a wide range of contexts. Consider the following:

　　(1) Smoke means fire.
　　(2) Red light means stopping.
　　(3) A handshake and an embrace mean the same thing.
　　(4) What did she mean by that wink?
　　(5) What does democracy mean?
　　(6) What does “Publish or Perish!” mean?
　　(7) ---Are you hungry?
　　　　---Do you mean to treat me to dinner now?
　　(8) She means well although her remarks are too harsh to accept.

　 Easily we can draw a distinction between the meanings of mean in (1)-(4) and those in (5)-(8), namely non-linguistic meanings and linguistic meanings. Further, we can see the differences within the two groups. In (1), one thing is seen as a sign of something else. In the case of smoke and fire, the connection is natural. In (2) and (3), the meanings are conventional. In (4), the meaning is intentional. While the meanings of mean in (5)-(8) are all linguistic, further distinction can be made in terms of conventionality and intentionality. In (5) and (6), the meanings are conventional, while in (7) and (8), intentional.

　 Linguistic semantics and pragmatics study meaning communicated through language, the types of meaning as shown by (5)-(8). When linguists analyze meanings in language, they may, for convenience, look at meanings of different ranks of language and focus on word (lexical) meaning or sentence meaning. This chapter introduces how linguists analyze conventional meanings in words and sentences out of context. The next chapter will study non-conventional meanings of linguistic expressions in context.