What are some examples of semantics?

Answer 1

Remembering something that has meaning for you

Answer 2

Semantics is the study of meaning.

For example, in Middle English, the word "deer" meant "wild animal" or "beast", so the meaning of "We plan to hunt deer" has a different meaning then than it does now. As another example, the word "awful" originally meant "full of awe" instead of "frightful" or "very bad", so it also would have very different meanings depending on the context.

Also, there are denotations and connotations. The denotation of a word is its direct meaning, while the connotation is an indirect or implied meaning. As an example of the difference, referring to the "smell of baking apple pie" would directly refer to the smell of cinnamon and other spices, but it might indirectly refer to happy memories in Grandma's kitchen or the comfort of home.

There are figures of speech that in their entirety do not mean what each word means literally. "Raining cats and dogs" does not mean cats and dogs are falling from clouds. Semantics is the study of meanings in language, for instance, when people say "I love" this can have numerous meanings.

Answer 3

Semantic features categorize the different elements of the meaning of a word. Some words have more semantic features than others.

For example:

Man [+Human] [+Adult] [+Male]

Woman [+Human] [+Adult] [+Female]

Boy [+Human] [-Adult] [+Male]

Girl [+Human] [-Adult] [+Female]

Whereas:

King [+Human] [+Adult] [+Male] [+Status]

Queen [+Human] [+Adult] [+Female] [+Status]

Prince [+Human] [-Adult] [+Male] [+Status]

Princess [+Human] [-Adult] [+Female] [+Status]

The kinds of semantic features that you use will greatly depend on what you are analyzing/categorizing. Here are some potential examples:

FEATURE: + vs. -

Human : Baby vs. Pig

Animate : Pig vs. Chair

Edible : Toast vs. Rock

Tangible : Chair vs. Idea

Event : Birthday vs. Pig

Mobile : Cart vs. Tree

Transitive : Hugged vs. Sat

Finite : An apple vs. Apples

When assigning semantic features to multiple items, you only need to indicate the value of relevant features. You want to have enough features to distinguish between the items (ie. each item has a unique value set) without having unnecessary or redundant features.

For example, to distinguish between 'Pig' and 'Chair' you only need the feature Animate:

Pig [+Animate]

Chair [-Animate]

While to distinguish between 'Pig', 'Chair', and 'Baby' you need to use two features:

Pig [+Animate] [-Human]

Chair [-Animate] [-Human]

Baby [+Animate] [+Human]

Here is a larger example:

Pig [+Animate] [-Human] [0Young] [+Tangible] [-Event]

Chair [-Animate] [-Human] [0Young] [+Tangible] [-Event]

Baby [+Animate] [+Human] [+Young] [+Tangible] [-Event]

Adult [+Animate] [+Human] [-Young] [+Tangible] [-Event]

Idea [0Animate] [-Human] [0Young] [-Tangible] [-Event]

Birthday [0Animate] [-Human] [0Young] [-Tangible] [+Event]