Language has multiple rules. Three sets of rules are relevant to our discussion:
semantic rules, syntactic rules, and pragmatic rules. Semantics is the study of the
way humans use language to evoke meaning in others. Semantics focuses on individual
words and their meaning. Semanticists—people who study semantics—are
interested in how language and its meaning change over time.
While semantics focuses on the defi nition of specifi c words, syntax is the way
in which words are arranged to form phrases and sentences. For example, in the
English language the subject is usually placed before the verb, and the object after
the verb. Other languages have different rules of syntax, including reading from
right to left. You encode by translating your thoughts into words. Syntax changes
the meaning of the same set of words. For example, the declarative statement “I am
going tomorrow” uses syntax to signal that someone is leaving the next day. If you
change the word arrangement to “Am I going tomorrow?” the statement becomes
a question and acquires a different meaning