SEMANTICS AND POETRY.

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  • Author(s): W.H.Y.
  • Source:
    New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry & Poetics. 1993, p1135-1138. 4p.
  • Additional Information
    • Subject Terms:
      Semantics; Literary criticism; Poetry (Literary form); Comparative linguistics; Language & languages; Meaning (Philosophy); Literature
    • Abstract:
      The article presents a definition of the term SEMANTICS AND POETRY. There are two groups of questions to be addressed here. First: What is s.? Semantics is the study of meaning. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, when linguistics was mainly historical and comparative, semantics was a relatively important branch of linguistic study. But it was certainly not scientific. Mostly it consisted of anecdotal, ad hoc accounts of the ways in which particular words had changed their meanings over time in a given language and of the ways in which etymologically related words differed in meaning over a group of related languages.