Someone has asked me before to know the difference between Linguistics terminology; as there's a number of them are: Semantics, Pragmatics, Phonetics, Morphology, Dialectology, .....etc.
I'll focus on Semantics, and Pragmatics; specifically, Semantics means the meaning and interpretation of words, signs, and sentence structure.
Semantics issues: literal meaning, and figurative meaning.
Literal meaning: "take concepts at face value". For example, if we said, ' Fall began with the turning of the leaves'.
We would mean that the season began to change when the leaves turned colors.
Figurative meaning: utilize similes and metaphors to respect meaning and convey greater emotion.
For example, ' I'm as hungry as a bear' would be a simile and a comparison to show a great need for sustenance.
Pragmatics studies to put words into action, how words can be interpreted in different ways. So pragmatists, and Semantics is the branch of linguistics.
Shortly, Pragmatics studies language that isn't directly spoken.
For instance, when I'm talking to someone, but indirectly like: I'm out of the mood today!.
You say it but it's not what actually you mean.... it means that you don't want to go ahead for this conversation or this project, presentation,.......blah, blah, blah,...etc.
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