Semantics explores how words, phrases, and sentences convey meaning, and how these meanings relate to each other. It delves into:
* Lexical semantics: The meaning of individual words and their relationships to each other (synonyms, antonyms, etc.)
* Phrasal semantics: The meaning of phrases and how they are composed of individual words.
* Sentential semantics: The meaning of sentences and how they are interpreted in context.
* Compositional semantics: How the meaning of a sentence is built up from the meaning of its individual parts.
* Conceptual semantics: The relationship between language and thought, and how concepts are represented in the mind.
There are other related fields within linguistics that also touch on meaning:
* Pragmatics: Studies how context and social factors influence the meaning of language.
* Lexicography: The study of dictionaries and the process of defining words.
So, while semantics is the primary branch that deals with meaning, other branches like pragmatics and lexicography contribute to understanding how meaning is created and interpreted in language.