the.com/semantics
the hairsplitting that decides whether your tweet was a joke or a crime
means The branch of linguistics and philosophy concerned with meaning — how words, phrases, and symbols actually signify what they signify.
from From Greek 'sēmantikos,' meaning 'significant' or 'having meaning,' which traces back to 'sēma,' a 'sign' or 'mark' — the same root that quietly lurks in 'semaphore' (signs by flag) and 'semiotics' (the study of signs). The term entered English in the late 19th century through French 'sémantique,' coined by the linguist Michel Bréal to name the study of how meanings shift and grow.
- word origin
- from Greek semantikos, meaning significant or to signify
- famous dodge
- that's just semantics dismisses arguments people are losing
- web's backbone
- semantic web tries teaching machines what words mean
- legal weapon
- contracts won and lost over single ambiguous words
- meaning drift
- awful once meant awe-inspiring, nice meant foolish
for instance
colorless green ideas — chomsky's 1957 sentence that's grammatically perfect but semantically nonsensical, proving syntax and meaning are separate