Approaches to the Study of Semantic
Traditional semantics .
Traditional semantics is associated with the works of such great philosophers as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle as well as many others who came after them. Their main focus was on the nature of human language itself. Based on their views of the nature of human language, these early philosophers were divided into two – the naturalists and the nurturists.
To the naturalists, language was God-given such that there was hardly anything anybody could do to understand language. Man was not expected to make alterations,butu should concern himself with merely observing and describing the rules of language. The Greek language was perceived to be the chosen language upon which all other languages should be based. Later, Latin became the focus of philosophical analysis.