ABSTRACT
This chapter begins the exposition, by describing and explaining semantic structure. Hierarchic structures are set out: the arrangement of senses in a group, arrangement of groups in a “figure” (typically, the meaning presented in a clause), and of figures in sentences, paragraphs, and sometimes larger structures. That parallels the syntactic structure of words, phrases, and clauses, since they serve to realise the meaning. (That material relies heavily on Halliday.) “Information structure” is then integrated with the rest of semantics; it parallels the meaning expressed in syntax (which is usually taken to be the whole of meaning), but is expressed by a different set of forms, mostly non-syntactic. Networks are introduced, to be developed in later chapters; they are the basic structure, hierarchies being a specialised form of network. Finally, the chapter outlines how the structures are realised in sign structures, through morphology, syntax, and phonology.
