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Glite Dictionary
semanticist

semanticist

1 9.3
A person who studies what words and sentences mean
  • noun
  • /sɪˈmæntɪsɪst/
  • Specialized
: semantista
  • The renowned semanticist explained the complexities of language during the lecture.
  • generative semanticist

Examples

  • As a semanticist, she is interested in how semantics influences communication and interpretation.

  • The thesis of continuity is essential to the general semanticist's own thesis.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • They were also, when asked, skilled practitioners of what semanticists have called "componential analysis."

    Academic text (1990)

  • The semanticist S. I. Hayakawa acknowledges that both modes "strive to give meaning and overtones to the innumerable data of everyday experience; they both attempt to make the objects of experience symbolic of something beyond themselves" (204).

    Academic text (2014)

  • A semanticist studies how words acquire meaning and how that meaning can change over time.

Surface Forms

semanticist singular
semanticists plural

Morphology

semanticist = semantic (transparent) = semantic + ist

Formed by adding the agentive suffix '-ist' to 'semantic', yielding 'a person who specializes in semantics'; the meaning follows directly.

Etymology

The word semanticist comes from semantic and the ending -ist, which means 'someone who does'. The root sema means 'sign' and is like the English word 'sign' or 'signal', so a semanticist studies the 'meaning' of words and language.