The branch of linguistics that studies the meaning of words, their historical and psychological development, their connotations, and their relation to one another.
Example:
"Awful—Originally meant "inspiring wonder (or fear)". Used originally as a shortening for "full of awe", in contemporary usage the word usually has negative meaning."-Dictionary.com
"Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry".
-Shakespeare
-Shakespeare
Explanation:
The word awful has changed over time. This is an example of semantics. The purpose of semantics is to see how words have evolved over time, such as Shakespeare and even simple words such as awful. The other example is Shakespearean, and showing how words have evolved over time, which is the purpose and what semantics is.
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