Semantics versus pragmatics

 Semantics and pragmatics




1. Semantics:


   Semantics deals with the literal meaning of words, phrases, sentences, and texts, focusing on the relationship between linguistic expressions and the entities they refer to in the world. It explores how words and sentences convey meaning through their internal structure and how they relate to reality. Semantics is concerned with truth conditions, reference, sense, and meaning relationships.

   Examples:


   - Word Meaning:


 In English, the word "dog" refers to a domesticated mammal of the species Canis lupus familiaris.

   - Sentence Meaning: 


The sentence "The cat chased the mouse" communicates the event of a cat pursuing a mouse.

   - Truth Conditions: 


The statement "It is raining outside" is true if and only if rain is falling at the location being referred to.

   - Sense: 


The word "bank" has different senses, such as a financial institution or the side of a river, depending on the context.

2. Pragmatics:


   Pragmatics focuses on how language is used in context to convey meaning beyond the literal interpretation of words and sentences. It deals with how people use language in real communication situations, considering factors such as context, speaker intentions, presuppositions, implicatures, and conversational implicatures. Pragmatics helps explain how meaning is inferred from context and how people interpret language in social interactions.


   Examples:


   - Presupposition: 


The sentence "John regretted eating the last cookie" presupposes that John ate the last cookie.

   - Implicature: 


When someone says "It's cold in here," the implicature might be that they want someone to close the window, even though they didn't explicitly say so.

   - Deixis: 


The interpretation of words like "here," "there," "this," and "that" depends on the context of the utterance and the spatial/temporal location of the speaker and listener.

   - Speech Acts: 


Utterances not only convey information but also perform actions, such as making requests, giving commands, or asking questions.

Difference:




- Semantics deals with the literal meaning of words and sentences, while pragmatics deals with how language is used in context to convey meaning.
- Semantics focuses on linguistic structures and their relationship to the world, whereas pragmatics focuses on the use of language in social interaction.
- Semantics is concerned with truth conditions and reference, while pragmatics is concerned with speaker intentions, implicatures, and conversational implicatures.


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