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Literary notes about semantics (AI summary)

The term semantics appears in literature with a wide range of meanings and functions. In some contexts, it refers to the academic study of meaning—with works discussing non-Aristotelian systems and the science of language sense [1][2][3]—demonstrating its role in scholarly debates about language and logic [4][5]. In other instances, it features in everyday dialogue or narrative exchanges, where disputes over intent or wordplay become a subtle battleground for differing interpretations [6][7][8]. Authors also use semantics as a lens through which to inspect the relationship between language and reality, often suggesting that mistaken understandings or even humor can derive from these very subtleties [9][10].
  1. Science and sanity: an introduction to non-aristotelian systems and general semantics.
    — from U.S. Copyright Renewals, 1969 July - December by Library of Congress. Copyright Office
  2. An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics (1933).
    — from The Civilization of Illiteracy by Mihai Nadin
  3. Semantics requires that one "abstract from the user of the language and analyze only the expressions and their designata" (Vol. 1., p.115).
    — from The Civilization of Illiteracy by Mihai Nadin
  4. There is too the study of semantics—the science of meanings as distinguished from phonetics, the science of sound.
    — from Why we should read-- by S. P. B. (Stuart Petre Brodie) Mais
  5. " Henry knew he had to make a desperate attempt to trip up the witness in semantics.
    — from Wild Justice by Ruth M. Sprague
  6. If they feel justified in eliminating Gresham on the strength of that phone call, I'm satisfied, regardless of the semantics involved.
    — from Murder in the Gunroom by H. Beam Piper
  7. That was a matter of semantics in my opinion.
    — from Warren Commission (12 of 26): Hearings Vol. XII (of 15) by United States. Warren Commission
  8. "That is largely a question of semantics," Raoul protested.
    — from The Ignoble Savages by Evelyn E. Smith
  9. Do you know anything about something called General Semantics?" he asked suddenly.
    — from Murder in the Gunroom by H. Beam Piper
  10. Written language encodes, at many levels (alphabet, sentence structure, semantics, etc.), the nature of the relation among those addressed in writing.
    — from The Civilization of Illiteracy by Mihai Nadin

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