SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS
It is important to understand the differences between semantics and pragmatics, so this helps us better understand linguistics.
However, both are part of linguistics and are related to the meaning of words, but their usage is drastically different.
PRAGMATICS
SEMANTICS
Semantics focuses on three basic aspects:
It refers to the meaning of words in a language and the meaning within the sentence.
It considers the meaning of the sentence without the context.
The relations of words to the interpreters of them
Symbolic logic, the formal relations of the signs to one another (syntax).
The relations of words to the objects denoted by them.
Semantics refers only to the meaning of grammar and vocabulary. It does not look for any implicit meaning.
In this sense, there is a focus on the general rules oF language usage.
Pragmatics also studies the meaning of words but within a context.
In every conversation there is a context, so listeners can define the ultimate meaning of words because they can implicitly vary the meaning.
It is important to take pragmatics and semantics into account when we carry out the communicative act. Because sometimes we need to understand sentences literally and other times subjectively.
Pragmatics usage focuses on the inferred meaning that the speakers and listeners perceive.
EXAMPLE
He was so tired he could sleep for days.
Semantically, we would need to take that sentence to mean exactly that.
Pragmatically, in casual conversation, it means that he was really, really tired. So this doesn't mean that he actually goes to sleep for a few days, he just mentioned it to emphasize his tiredness.
