1 . Introduction
Semantics is the level of linguistic analysis at which meaning can be analysed, in an attempt to understand what makes words, sentences and utterances meaningful, or what makes them meaningless. It typically focuses on the relationship between signifiers, such as words, phrases, grammatical constructions, intonation patterns, signs and symbols, and what they stand for. Linguistic semantics often denotes a problem of understanding that comes down to word selection or connotation. This is due to that the language competency of an individual depends on the knowledge, that people should have in order to speak and understand language. Languages reflecting the culture is another concern of language competency. Goddard (2011), states that in order to interpret a certain language we have to understand how it is designed as a complex device for communicating meaning based on the linguistic knowledge and the cultural norms of a particular society.
This paper will focus on the underlying circumstances and factors that influence an individual in arriving at a particular word meaning that lead them to develop a certain interpretation. The discussion will also look into the relationship between an utterance and the context it is related to.
2 . Pinning down meaning to words
As natural languages has the capacity to describe and refer themselves it is difficult to assign a meaning to a word at a glance.The reason is that ‘word’ and ‘meaning’ themselves have multiple