我们来聊聊 什么是语义学？

在回答这个问题之前，先给大家援引三个语言学概念——“句法学”（syntax）、“语义学”（semantics）和“语用学”（pragmatics）

根据John.T.Kearns（请原谅我关于“John”这个指称用语为什么二十年来一直被译作“约翰”而存疑，故而此处采用作者原名直引）《以言行事观念下的语法学》研究一文（即Austin所提出的Speech Acts理论），我们首先可以做出以下比较

syntax
英 [sntks] 美 [sntks]
n.
语法; 句法; 句法规则[分析]; 语构
His grammar and syntax, both in oral and written expression, were much better than the average.
无论口头还是笔头，他的文法和句法都非常出众。
semantics
英 [smntks] 美 [smntks]
n.
语义学; 词义学
Pragmatics and semantics are both linguistic studies of meaning, but they are different.
语用学和语义学都是对意义的语言学研究，但两者是不同的。

这里就涉及到人类认知环节的两个不同逻辑层次——如下图所示，

一般情况下，我们援引维基对认知环节的二分法阐释：

In binary logic the two levels are logical high and logical low, which generally correspond to binary numbers 1 and 0 respectively. Signals with one of these two levels can be used in boolean algebra for digital circuit design or analysis.

Active state[edit]

The use of either the higher or the lower voltage level to represent either logic state is arbitrary. The two options are active high and active low. Active-high and active-low states can be mixed at will: for example, a read only memory integrated circuit may have a chip-select signal that is active-low, but the data and address bits are conventionally active-high. Occasionally a logic design is simplified by inverting the choice of active level (see De Morgan's theorem).

Binary signal representations

The name of an active-low signal is historically written with a bar above it to distinguish it from an active-high signal. For example, the name Q, read "Q bar" or "Q not", represents an active-low signal. The conventions commonly used are:

• a bar above (Q)

• a leading slash (/Q)

• a lower-case n prefix or suffix (nQ or Q_n)

• a trailing # (Q#), or

• an "_B" or "_L" suffix (Q_B or Q_L).[1]

Many control signals in electronics are active-low signals [2] (usually reset lines, chip-select lines and so on). Logic families such as TTL can sink more current than they can source, so fanout and noise immunity increase. It also allows for wired-OR logic if the logic gates are open-collector/open-drain with a pull-up resistor. Examples of this are the IC bus and the Controller Area Network (CAN),and the PCI Local Bus. RS232 signaling, as used on some serial ports, uses active-low signals.

Some signals have a meaning in both states and notation may indicate such. For example, it is common to have a read/write line designated R/W, indicating that the signal is high in case of a read and low in case of a write.

以解释人类语言和人类思维的内在关系，但是语言究竟在多大程度上决定或者说是影响着人的正常思维活动目前尚不可知，因为人在人类学研究中总有着不可突破的局限假设，那就是：人之为人既作为研究主题，也作为研究客体参与到整个受试过程当中。

若取维基百科里的字面释义，我们可以粗浅的对语义学这一衍生自希腊词汇的外来概念做一个大致的框架性认知，那就是：

Semantics (from Ancient Greek: σημαντικ sēmantikos, "significant") is the linguistic and philosophical study of meaning, in language, programming languages, formal logics, and semiotics. It is concerned with the relationship between signifiers—like words, phrases, signs, and symbols—and what they stand for, their denotation.

In international scientific vocabulary semantics is also called semasiology. The word semantics was first used by Michel Bréal, a French philologist. It denotes a range of ideas—from the popular to the highly technical. It is often used in ordinary language for denoting a problem of understanding that comes down to word selection or connotation. This problem of understanding has been the subject of many formal enquiries, over a long period of time, especially in the field of formal semantics. In linguistics, it is the study of the interpretation of signs or symbols used in agents or communities within particular circumstances and contexts. Within this view, sounds, facial expressions, body language, and proxemics have semantic (meaningful) content, and each comprises several branches of study. In written language, things like paragraph structure and punctuation bear semantic content; other forms of language bear other semantic content.

The formal study of semantics intersects with many other fields of inquiry, including lexicology, syntax, pragmatics, etymology and others. Independently, semantics is also a well-defined field in its own right, often with synthetic properties.In the philosophy of language, semantics and reference are closely connected. Further related fields include philology, communication, and semiotics. The formal study of semantics can therefore be manifold and complex.

Semantics contrasts with syntax, the study of the combinatorics of units of a language (without reference to their meaning), and pragmatics, the study of the relationships between the symbols of a language, their meaning, and the users of the language.[6] Semantics as a field of study also has significant ties to various representational theories of meaning including truth theories of meaning, coherence theories of meaning, and correspondence theories of meaning. Each of these is related to the general philosophical study of reality and the representation of meaning. In 1960s psychosemantic studies became popular after Osgood's massive cross-cultural studies using his semantic differential (SD) method that used thousands of nouns and adjective bipolar scales. A specific form of the SD, Projective Semantics method.uses only most common and neutral nouns that correspond to the 7 groups (factors) of adjective-scales most consistently found in cross-cultural studies (Evaluation, Potency, Activity as found by Osgood, and Reality, Organization, Complexity, Limitation as found in other studies). In this method, seven groups of bipolar adjective scales corresponded to seven types of nouns so the method was thought to have the object-scale symmetry (OSS) between the scales and nouns for evaluation using these scales. For example, the nouns corresponding to the listed 7 factors would be: Beauty, Power, Motion, Life, Work, Chaos, Law. Beauty was expected to be assessed unequivocally as “very good” on adjectives of Evaluation-related scales, Life as “very real” on Reality-related scales, etc. However, deviations in this symmetric and very basic matrix might show underlying biases of two types: scales-related bias and objects-related bias. This OSS design meant to increase the sensitivity of the SD method to any semantic biases in responses of people within the same culture and educational background

叉出去讲个偏见，这两天在知乎上参与所谓“学术著作为何没有高质量翻译？”的讨论，就鄙人接触国外前沿语言学著作和认知科学相关论文的经验来看，答案或许并不像最高赞回复所谓：“1.具备外语能力的大多都不具备相应的人学术能力；2.具备翻译水平的从业者大多对学术著作这种无利可图的样本没有兴趣；3.前沿著作大多没有统一学界认知，翻译之后难免影响作者原意”……鄙人浅见除了最后一条借口尚可算作一个冠冕堂皇的搪塞理由外，前两者完全是学术先行者为了构筑“学术壁垒”的瞎扯。

笔者在此可以点名批评浙江大学出版社认知科学研究的译本——《认知的边界》一书中译者水平竟然不能保证最基本的文通字顺，学术这条道路上，我不敢妄论。但是此举又和那些午夜电台的DJ自恃无人收听而信口胡诌有何区别？人在做，天在看。行医做学问，还是凭良心，不能赚人，上当就一次。

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