Quotes About Semantics

To shift the structure of a sentence alters the meaning of that sentence, as definitely and inflexibly as the position of a camera alters the meaning of the object photographed.

medhermeneutical

Words have no word for words that are not true.

Gilbert's response to being told they (the words 'ruddy' and 'bloody') meant the same thing was: "Not at all, for that would mean that if I said that I admired your ruddy countenance, which I do, I would be saying that I liked your bloody cheek, which I don't.

Words aren't only bombs and bullets—no, they're little gifts, containing meanings!

If a person does not attend to the meaning of terms as they are commonly used in argument, he may be involved even in greater paradoxes

Vulgar languages, especially when native, stand too close to the press of life. Their meanings are too easily warped by our insights and experiences. The sheer otherness of Gilcûnya serves to insulate the semantics of sorcery from the inconstancies of our lives.

Words are plastic these days. Small loans made to desperate people at exorbitant interest rates are called payday advances. A cheesy hotel paired with a seedy casino is called a resort. Any assemblage of frenetic images, bad music, and incoherent plot is called a major motion picture.

The waters below are mayim (the Hebrew word for "water"), and waters above are sham-mayim—which some, but by no means all, scholars believe means "water there" (sham is Hebrew for "there").

In English, the word "left" derives from the Anglo-Saxon lyft, which means "weak" or "useless.

Now, then. What does 'fucking' mean?

For example, there are thousands of different linguistic words for water. The meanings all refer to water – and the substance can literally be pointed at in case of linguistic difficulties.

Our language is funny — a fat chance and slim chance are the same thing.

Gottlob Frege's Begriffsschrift.

The economics we need is of the "seminar room" variety, not the "rule-of-thumb" kind. It is an economics that recognizes its limitations and caveats and knows that the right message depends on the context. The fine print is what economists have to contribute.

A word is an abstract image, the imaginary thing, or, in so far as everything is ultimately an object of the thinking power, it is the imagined thought: hence men, when they know the word, the name for a thing, fancy that they know the thing also.

A severe example is the common modern American phrase "I could care less," which, it turns out, means the same thing as "I couldn't care less.

Sweetbread is not sweet and it's not bread.

I see graphic design as the organization of information that is semantically correct, syntactically consistent and pragmatically understandable.

Language operates between literal and metaphorical signification.

A word is also a picture of a word.

Semantics is the study of meaning. Semantic constraints are those that rely upon the meaning of the situation to control the set of possible actions. In the case of the motorcycle, there is only one meaningful location for the rider, who must sit facing forward. The

Semantics is the study of meaning. Semantic constraints are those that rely upon the meaning of the situation to control the set of possible actions.

The aim of interpretation is not agreement but understanding