Introduction to semantics

“In recent years many philosophers and scientists interested in the logical analysis of science have become aware that we need, in addition to a purely formal analysis of language,1 an analysis of the signifying function of language — in other words, a theory of meaning and interpretation.' It is the purpose of this book to furnish a theory of this kind, called semantics. It will be seen that this theory, if sufficiently developed, contains not only a theory of designation, i.e. the relation between expressions and their meaning, but also a theory of truth and a theory of logical deduction.

Semantical concepts are often used, not only in science but in everyday life. When, for example, a person says that a certain word is used by him in a different sense than by somebody else, or that a certain assertion is true or that it is false, that a particular statement is analytic, i e. true for purely logical reasons, that another statement follows from the first, or is compatible with it or contradicts it, — then in all these cases he applies semantical concepts. Thus some of the problems of semantics deal with familiar concepts and are by no means new. The task of a systematic construction of semantics is to find adequate, exact definitions for the customary semantical concepts and for new concepts related to them, and to supply a theory based on these definitions. ”—from the preface