Melody Patrick, age 13, of Great Falls, Mont., for her question:

WHO ORIGINATED SEMANTICS?

Semantics in logic is the study of the conditions under which signs and symbols, including words, may be said to be meaningful.

It also is the study of how human behavior is affected by words, whether spoken by others or to oneself in thought.

In the study of languages, semantics used to mean the historical study of changes in the meaning of words.

Modern semantics originated in the early 1900s in what an English philosopher named Lady Viola Welby called "significs." She described it as "the science of meaning or the study of significance, provided sufficient recognition is given to its practical aspect as a method of mind."

Lady Welby felt that a proper study of meaning should start with the study of what words are about, namely, experience.

Contributing insights into the field of semantics were C.R. Ogden, a British psychologist, I.A. Richards, an English literary critic, P.W. Bridgman, an American physicist, and Alfred Korzybski, a Polish American scientist.