This book began as a search for scholarly material on semantics that could
suitably be used in place of a text for an introductory course in that subject.
I had discovered that there was no suitable text, one that would cover all
aspects of semantics, showing their relationships, and giving the student
an understanding of how semantics is used in various disciplines. While I
was teaching the course, it became clear that a text that performed those
functions would assist the student to grasp the concepts under discussion
and give him or her ideas to mull over between class presentations, and
that such a text was needed.

It was bothersome to find that semantics had been made a part of so
many disciplines without suitable recognition that it is in itself a discipline,
and that each of the coopting fields of study was really only treating a
portion of what might be called the overall semantic domain. There was
need to clarify the various approaches and their limitations.

This is what I have attempted to do in this work. I have tried to outline
the approaches various disciplines use to the subject, to show their rela-
tionships, and to show their limitations. The emphasis has been on the
important aspects of each approach, from psychosemantics to artificial
intelligence, using pertinent source material from psychology, philosophy,
logic, linguistics, and sociology.

In an introductory work, such as this one, none of these approaches
can be fully investigated. The specialist in any of the areas outlined will
seek more thoroughgoing analysis in more specialized works, but for those
coming to the study of semantics as a discipline for the first time and for

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