Which field studies the meaning of utterances and why certain utterances convey specific meanings?

• A. Pragmatics
• B. Semantics
• C. Phonology
• D. Morphology

Answer: (B)

Semantics is the study of meaning in language—the way words and sentences encode information and how their meanings combine to form overall sentence meaning. This question focuses on what utterances mean, not on how context or speaker intent changes interpretation, which is the domain of pragmatics. For instance, the literal meaning of a sentence like "The cat is on the mat" is analyzed in terms of reference and truth-conditions, while pragmatics would consider how the same sentence might function differently in conversation or imply something beyond its literal content. Other subfields like phonology or morphology deal with sounds and word forms, not meaning, so semantics is the best fit.