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How do semantics and pragmatics differ in the study of language?

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Austrian postage stamp featuring a portrait of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, with German text above and below, and a denomination of 5 schillings. — Philosophy of language An Austrian stamp depicting Ludwig Wittgenstein.

In the philosophy of language, semantics and pragmatics are distinct but complementary fields concerned with how language conveys meaning.

Semantics is the study of the rule systems that determine the literal or conventional meanings of words and sentences. It focuses on the linguistic properties of expressions, often exploring how meaning relates to truth conditions—the specific circumstances under which a statement is considered true. For example, semantic analysis examines the stable, conventional definitions of terms and how they combine to form propositions.123

Pragmatics, by contrast, is the study of how utterances are used to communicate intentions, attitudes, and propositions that are not fully captured by literal meaning. It examines how meaning is shaped by the interpersonal, social, or physical context in which an utterance occurs. Pragmatics also investigates how speakers perform "speech acts"—such as promising, requesting, or accusing—and how they rely on principles of rational cooperation to generate nonliteral meanings, known as implicatures.14

While semantics deals with the conventional content of language, pragmatics addresses how that content is interpreted and used in actual human interaction.1