The word semantics is derived from the Greek semaino, meaning, to signify
or mean. Semantics is part of the larger study of signs, serniotics. It is the
part that deals with words as signs (symbols) and language as a system
of signs (words as symbols).

Plato, in his Cratylus dialogue, discussed nouns as "names" -- for persons,
objects, and, to some degree, actions ( Jowett, 1875). Although naming is
a basic, primitive, and necessary speech act, necessary for communica-
tions, it does not encompass nearly all of what words do and mean. Most
simply understood, words are symbols (nouns, pronouns, adjectives,
verbs, verbals, and adverbs) representing objects (concrete or abstract),
actions (physical or mental), or qualities (which may be called attributes,
properties, or features), or they are symbols (prepositions, determiners,
demonstratives, or conjunctions) that refer to the relationships among
those entities.

Moreover, words used in various contexts change meaning and evoke
different responses in those who hear or read them. In fact, the English
Renaissance philosophers Baconand Hobbes were keenly aware of the
uncertain dependence of words upon human perception. In sections 38-44

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