Semantics é a branch of linguistics that studies the meaning of words, phrases and texts of a language. the semantics is divided into:descriptive or synchronous – the one that studies the current meaning of the words and in historical or diachronic - the one that studies the changes that words have undergone in time and space.
descriptive semantics studies the meaning of words and also the figures of speech.
The study of the meaning of words can be divided into: synonymy, antonymy, homonymy and paronymy:
synonymy – is the study of the relationship of two or more words that have the same or similar meanings, that is, the synonyms: Eg: face/face, bedroom/bedroom, house/home/address.
Antonímia – it is the study of the relationship of two or more words that have different meanings, that is, antonyms: eg love/hate, day/night, heat/cold.
homonymy - is the study of the relationship of two or more words that have different meanings, but have the same shape and sound, that is, the homonyms. These are divided into:
homophones – seat/seat, repair/repair; Homographs – can/can, eye/eye; perfect – river/river, are/are/are.Paronymy – is the study of the particularity of two words that are similar in spelling and pronunciation, but have different meanings: eminent/imminent, absolve/absorb.
Semantics also studies the denotation and connotation of the words:
Denotation – is the property that has a word to limit itself to its own concept, to bring only the original meaning. Ex.: The stars in the sky. I dressed in red. The fire from the lighter.
Connotation – it is the property that a word has to expand in its semantic field, within a context, which can cause several interpretations. Ex.: Movie stars. The garden was dressed in flowers. The fire of passion.