At its core, that's not what "semantics" is meant to represent at all. ![]() These days, you're likely to hear someone accuse a debate partner of "just arguing semantics," which, if you think about it, means their debate partner is "just arguing about meaning," which you would think is, like, the point of arguing in the first place? But in our modern vernacular, the phrase has somehow become shorthand to insinuate the speaker has argued something trivial or unimportant. Sometime after that, people began arguing over what "semantics" itself actually means (ironic, don't you think?). Sometime in the late 19th century, people began using the word "semantics" to allude to " semiotics," a philosophical theory covering the relationship between signs and the things they reference - most notably, words and their intended meanings. According to Merriam-Webster, the word "semantics" means: "The historical and psychological study and the classification of changes in the signification of words or forms viewed as factors in linguistic development." Got that? No wonder it's so misunderstood.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |