2012م - 1444هـ
Basic Semantics



This is an introductory book to semantics for undergraduate students

with some linguistic background. However, non specialized previous

semantic knowledge is needed to understand it.

The aim of the book is to help readers to grasp the main issues dealt

with in semantic analysis in connection with linguistic analysis. This

book does not support any particular semantic or linguistic theory, but,

rather, it tries to offer the reader some of the most relevant approaches

in semantics, emphasizing its particular contributions and, sometimes,

noting its weak points.

The book is organized in ten lessons, which are grouped in three

different units. Unit I, An introduction to the science of meaning, includes

two lessons dedicated to deal with basic concepts such as units of

analysis, linguistic theories and their relations with the most widely used

semantic concepts. Lessons three and four deal with the relations and

overlappings of semantics and related disciplines, such as logic and

pragmatics. Unit II, Paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations, constitutes

the central part of this book and deals with the main topics in semantic

analysis. This analysis is taken from the perspective that the key to the

understanding of the meaning of a word should always be attempted in

connection with other related words either present or absent in the

linguistic structure that the word is part of. Unit III, An introduction to

cognitive semantics, reviews the most basic aspects concerning human

cognition and some related theories.