The Semantic Problem—Sources and Themes

Abstract

The terms ‘semantics’ and ‘semantic problems’ have recently featured with increasing frequency on the pages of technical and scientific texts. They do not, however, always mean the same thing, nor is the attribute ‘semantic’ understood in the same sense when variously associated with problems of logic, linguistics, psychology, sociology, psychiatry, philosophy, information theory and other disciplines. In other words, while these and many other fields of scientific endeavour doubtless do have their own semantic problems, the link between them is often hazy. There are several reasons why this is so.