Hello, hello, hello. In this lesson, we are talking about semantics. What is semantics about? Semantics is one branch of linguistics. Linguistics has three branches, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Syntax is the study of grammar, including phonology, morphology, and textual grammar. Semantics and pragmatics deal with meaning. Semantics is the study of meaning and language. Pragmatics considers the meaning in social contexts and the ways people produce and comprehend meanings through language. Or what people mean by the language they use. Note that semantics is context-free. On the other hand, pragmatics is context-dependent. Let's check the following two examples. Example 1, Peter says, coming down to the pub tonight? Bill says, I've got to finish a piece of work. The semantic meaning is, Bill's reply just informs Peter he has a piece of work to finish. The pragmatic meaning is, Bill's reply will normally be taken to indicate that he is not free to go to the pub, even though he does not actually say that. Example 2, there's a new Korean restaurant on Votee South Street. The semantic meaning is, the speaker simply informs the hearer of the new Korean restaurant on Votee South Street. The pragmatic meaning is, the speaker suggests trying that new restaurant. In other words, we can say semantic meaning is the sentence meaning, or word meaning. It is what a sentence, or word, means, or what it counts as the equivalent in the language concerned. Pragmatic meaning is the speaker meaning. It is what a speaker means, or intends to convey, when he uses a piece of language. In summary, semantics is the study of meaning in language, sentence meaning, or word meaning. And it is context-free. Pragmatics considers the meaning in social contexts, or speaker meaning. And it is context-dependent.