Realist and Cognitive Perspectives on Meaning and Semantics

Abstract

The article presents central paradigms on semantics and meaning. The aim is to introduce the reader of cultural studies to various aspects of modeling meaning and to provide a useful theoretical and methodological semantic apparatus. Various notions of meaning and semantics are examined from philosophical and cognitive perspectives. The author argues that meaning is a conventional entity and part of the social and cultural environment that emerges from the community of language users.