Linguistics & Semantics Vocabulary

the study of meaning in language; what words and sentences signify

“The semantic content was clear, though the phrasing was awkward.”

Origin: Greek semantikos (significant), from sema (sign)

the rules governing how words combine into phrases and sentences

“The sentence was syntactically correct but semantically nonsensical.”

Origin: Greek syntaxis (arrangement), from syn- (together) + taxis (order)

how context influences the interpretation of meaning

“Pragmatically, 'Can you pass the salt?' is a request, not a question.”

Origin: Greek pragmatikos (practical), from pragma (deed)

the study of word formation and internal structure

“The morphology of 'unhappiness' reveals three meaningful units.”

Origin: Greek morphe (form) + -logia (study)

words whose meaning depends on context (I, here, now, this)

“Deictic expressions like 'tomorrow' shift meaning with each utterance.”

Origin: Greek deixis (pointing, reference)

using a word to refer back to something mentioned earlier

“In 'John said he was tired,' 'he' is an anaphoric reference to John.”

Origin: Greek anapherein (to carry back)

a single word having multiple related meanings

“The polysemy of 'bank' (river/financial) causes ambiguity.”

Origin: Greek poly- (many) + sema (sign)

resolving which meaning is intended when multiple are possible

“Context usually enables disambiguation without conscious effort.”

Origin: Latin dis- (apart) + ambiguus (doubtful)

the meaning of a whole derived from its parts and their arrangement

“Idioms violate compositionality—'kick the bucket' isn't about buckets.”

Origin: Latin componere (to put together)

the vocabulary of a language; a mental dictionary of words

“Her lexicon expanded dramatically after a year of reading.”

Origin: Greek lexikon (word book), from lexis (word)

the smallest unit of sound that distinguishes meaning

“The phonemes /p/ and /b/ distinguish 'pat' from 'bat'.”

Origin: Greek phonema (sound uttered)

the smallest meaningful unit in a language

“The word 'cats' contains two morphemes: 'cat' and '-s'.”

Origin: Greek morphe (form) + -eme (unit)