SEMANTICS

SEMANTICSDEFINITION OF SEMANTICS

The word of semantics originally comes from Greek sema that means sign. The term used by linguist to mention the study about meaning. The new term semantics came in 1984 through American Philosophy Association in an article entitled Reflected Meaning; A Point In Semantics. Semantics started to be in use as the study of meaning in 1987 in the work of literature by M .Barel entitled Essay De Semantique.Prof. Dr. Wagiman Adisutrisno, MA (2008: 1) in his book title SEMANTICS AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BASIC CONCEPTS mentions that semantics is the study of meaning in language. It is fact that meaning is a part of language.

CONTIn structural linguistics, Francis in Wagiman (2008:1) defines language, among others, as an arbitrary system of articulated sounds made use of by a group of humans as a means of carrying on the affairs of their society (1958 : 13 ). On the contrary, according to Bloomfield in wagiman ( 1933 in leech , 1981,2 ) the study of meaning in linguistics must be excluded. However, any attempt to study language cannot escape from the study of meaning. However, Goddad in Wagiman (2008: 6) states that semantics is the study of meaning stands at the very center of the linguistics quest to understand the nature of language and human language abilities ( 1998 ; 1 ). In addition, Fatimah Djajasudarma (2009: 11) mentions in her book that semantics is linguistics and language. Almost similarly, Hornby in little oxford dictionary (1986: 498) states that semantics is a branch of linguistics concerned with meaning

CONTBased on the definitions above, the writer draws conclusion that all of the meaning of word will be discussed in the semantics as a subfield of linguistics. Semantics is not only the study about meaning but also all of the factors that contain in language such as etimology, root of word and meaning of word.

APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF SEMANTICS

There are two approaches to the study of meaning in language according to Leech (1981) and Palmer, (1982 ) in Wagiman Adisutrisno (2008: 8); those are :The contextual approachThe mentalistics approach

The Contextual ApproachThe contextual approach to meaning views meaning in language in term of context, situation or use. This approach necessitates the existence of an external stimulus that triggers the human brain to produce meaning as a response to the stimulus. The structuralize Bloomfield, states that the meaning of a linguistics form is the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response which it calls forth in the hearer . ( Bloomfield in Wagiman 2008 : 7 ). His example to illustrate meaning as situation context or use is the Jack and Jill context as follow:Jill is hungry. She sees an apple in a tree. She makes a noise with her larynx, tongue and lips. Jack vaults the fence, climbs the tree, takes an apple, brings it to Jill, and places it in her hand. Jill eats the apple. Based on the statements and examples above it can be concluded that external factors are needed in describing something such as context or situation to make human brain respond the whole of what the speaker or text tell about.

The Mentalistics Approach

The mentalistics approach to meaning in language views meaning as concepts, ideas, images and association which are stored in the long term memory of the human brain; meaning is inside the brain. According to Carrol in Wagiman ( 1986: 257 ), concepts , ideas, images and association are derived from mentalese the mental representation of word reality. The following examples illustrate the concept of mentalese :CONTa. Word realityAnimate , animal , biped, avian. QuackingSymbolDuckb. Word realityAnimate, animal, quadruped, mammal, vertebrate, bovine, mooing, femaleSymbolCow c. Word realityInanimate , building, for worship , for the ChristiansSymbolChurch