The studies of semantics, grammar and phonetics are the three main branches of the study of modern linguistics. Semantics studies the meaning of language, encompassing and touching upon philosophy, logic, psychology, anthropology and semiology. This course focuses on the semantic subdivision of linguistics, with an emphasis on combining practical Chinese from the cognitional and functional aspects, explaining and discussing the various characteristics, types, structures and functions of semantics of words and expressions, as well as the formation, development and evolution of semantics. The course will also discuss the semantic structure of sentences, the aggregate relationship of semantics of words and expressions, the combined relationship in sentence semantics, the relationship in the meaning between sentences, and related issues.