Here's a breakdown:
* Semantics: Focuses on the meaning of individual words, phrases, and sentences. It investigates how language represents concepts and how those concepts are related to each other.
* Perception: Focuses on the interpretation of sensory information, such as sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste. It involves processing and organizing this raw data to form a meaningful understanding of the world around us.
In simpler terms:
* Semantics is about understanding what words mean.
* Perception is about understanding what we see, hear, touch, smell, and taste.
Example:
* Semantics: The word "cat" refers to a small, furry domesticated animal.
* Perception: Seeing a furry animal with four legs and a tail might lead us to perceive it as a cat.
Perception and semantics are closely related:
* Perception provides the raw data that informs our understanding of language.
* Semantics helps us interpret and understand the meaning of the information we perceive.