Ask-A-Linguist Message Details
| Subject: | Semantics or pragmatics? |
|---|---|
| Question: |
Hello, I was wondering which area of linguistics deals with perceived vs. intended meaning of a word. For example, if I say the word ''socialism'', it has certain connotations for me, but my listener might have very different connotations. Would that be semantics or pragmatics? Thank you, Jessi |
| Reply: |
It's more semantics. You might want to look into some old research by Osgood on the "semantic differential". His work specifically looked at the connotative meaning rather than the denotative meaning usually associated with semantics. Here's the Wikipedia reference: <a href='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_differential' target='_blank'>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_differential</a>; |
| Reply From: | Susan Fischer click here to access email |
| Date: | 18-Jul-2012 |
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