This article is also the answer to the question given below.
There is a thin line between semantics and pragmatics; at times,
it becomes difficult to differentiate or draw boundaries between them. How far
do you agree with the statement? Substantiate your answer with suitable
examples.
While putting the statement in mind to elaborate on this
example, we will go step by step and will see how far this statement is
reliable. So, first of all, let us talk about semantics.
Semantics is the study of meaning. It is the study of the
meaning of the words, the part of words, phrases, and clauses, and how these
words are combined to give a certain meaning. It is a decontextualized meaning.
So there is no use of extra-linguistic features to know the exact meaning of a
sentence only the knowledge of the language would be enough to understand the
true meaning of the sentence. If there are some sentences, one will already
know the given meaning of the sentence if he knows the exact meanings of the
words, which are combined to form that sentence, so the knowledge of a language
is enough to understand the true meaning of a sentence semantically.
For example; Sir, your mic is off.
If a person knows the meaning of mic, sir, and off, then he can
tell the meaning of the sentence that the mic of the sir is mute. This meaning
is known only by the words present in the sentence. There was no need for any
extra-linguistic feature to know the actual meaning of this sentence.
On the other hand, if we talk about pragmatics, is also the
study of meaning, but it relies on the context of a statement or a sentence. It
is a contextualized study of meaning. Here the sentences work as utterances.
All sentences can be utterances, but all utterances cannot be sentences. The
utterances are related to the situation and the context in which they took
place. So pragmatics is the study of a speaker’s intended meaning. It is the
study of the use of language that how language has been used in a particular situation.
For example; Sir, your mic is off.
The sentence is the same as mentioned above, but maybe the
situation is different here. The teacher is saying something, but the student
cannot hear a word. This sentence is an utterance in this situation, and its intended
meaning is sir, please raise your volume or check your microphone.
So both semantics and pragmatics come under linguistics. And
both are the study of meaning. There is no difference till here. But the given
statement is also accurate that there is a thin borderline between both. Now we
will see the difference. Semantics and pragmatics are the studies of the
meaning although there is some difference in the meaning due to context. One is
the decontextualized meaning of a sentence, and the other is the contextualized
meaning of a sentence. In semantics, there is no need to focus on the situation
or the speaker's intended meaning the knowledge of the words in the sentence is
enough to know the meaning of a sentence. In pragmatics, with the understanding
of the words, one must know the situation and context of that sentence. After
focusing on the context, one will understand the intended or implied meaning of
the speaker.
Explanation of semantics and pragmatics is discussed in detail,
now here are some examples to elaborate on them more. In pragmatics, the focus
is on the intended meaning, and it is necessary because there are some
situations where a person cannot say something directly, so to convey his
intended meaning, he uses the language in a way that he can transfer the actual
meaning without being rude.
Here are some examples: Some students are in the classroom, and
the teacher is teaching. A student says; Sir, the board is not visible. So if
we look at this sentence semantically, there is just a piece of factual
information that the board is not visible, and this is enough, but if we look
at this sentence pragmatically, the implied meaning of this sentence according
to the situation may be the student is asking to come forward and sit. Or he is
asking his teacher to write clearly, in bold, and big in size.
Let us take the second example: If someone is at a party, and is
annoyed by the music. And says: Is not the music so loud? So if we see this
sentence semantically, the simple meaning on the surface level is that the
sound is so loud. But if the music is good and not too loud, then from the
situation, someone can judge his implied meaning easily. And this is because of
pragmatics. His implied meaning is to change the music because this music is
annoying him.
That is how there are some
similarities and a difference between both semantics and pragmatics, and it is
a slight difference because the same sentence can be an utterance according to
the situation. And it will mean semantically different and different
pragmatically.
