Semantic field

theory is an approach which developed in the 1930s; it took the view that the VOCABULARY of a language is not simply a listing of independent items (as the headwords in a dictionary would suggest), but is organized into areas, or FIELDS, within which words interrelate and define each other in various ways. The words denoting color are often cited as an example of a semantic field: the precise meaning of a color word can be understood only by placing it in relation to the other terms which occur with it in demarcating the color spectrum. Other areas of semantics include the DIACHRONIC study of word meanings (ETYMOLOGY), the SYNCHRONIC analysis of word USAGE (LEXICOLOGY), and the compilation of dictionaries (LEXICOGRAPHY). An important current debate is the distinction between semantics and PRAGMATICS, focusing in particular on the incursion of pragmatic theories into traditional semantic areas.