Here's why:
* Semantics is the study of meaning in language.
* When people have different interpretations of the same words, it's a matter of their understanding of the meaning of those words differing.
Example:
* Person A: "I need to go to the bank."
* Person B: "What bank? You mean the river bank?"
In this case, Person A is referring to a financial institution, while Person B is interpreting "bank" as the edge of a river. This is a semantic misunderstanding because they are both using the same word, but with different meanings.
Other types of misunderstandings include:
* Pragmatic misunderstandings: Misunderstandings that arise from differences in cultural norms or social context.
* Syntactic misunderstandings: Misunderstandings that occur due to the way words are arranged in a sentence.
However, semantic misunderstandings are specifically about the meaning of words themselves.