antisemantic

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adjective

Based on form or structure rather than meaning.

Scrabble 16

Meanings

adjectiveantisemantic (not comparable)
  1. not comparableBased on form or structure rather than meaning.

    The most striking feature of the distributionalist approach to language is, however, its antisemantic bias, typical especially of Harris but going back to scholars like B. Bloch, G. L. Trager, and ultimately L. Bloomfield.

    2014, Josef Vachek, Selected Writings in English and General Linguistics, page 69
    3 more examples

    As Albert says to Pogo during the poetry contest: "I made it up. I made it rhyme. Now I gotta make it mean something?" While Albert is almost self-consciously taking a Dadaist artistic position during this interchange, it is also true that his antisemantic tendencies are constantly with him.

    1957, Reuel Denney, The Astonished Muse, page 181

    To point up Antal's anti-meaning attitude I could still continue recalling quotations: a single one must yet be added here, and this from his work where he tried to outline the distinction between word-declension and word-formation, describing the Hungarian case-system in a strictly antisemantic manner.

    1971, Ferenc Kovacs, Linguistic Structures and Linguistic Laws, page 55

    But meaning was definitely out of the main purview of linguistics in that period, following Bloomfield's warning that it has the potential to lead to chaos. So, for instance, Hill uses and obscure paper by Joos ("Towards a First Theorem in Semantics") to serve "as one refutation (among many) to the oft-repeated but erroneous charge that American linguistics of the 1940's and 1950's was anti-semantic and materialist, characteristics which it supposedly owed to Leonard Bloomfield,” but interpolated into Hill's paper is a lamentation by Joos that the audience “reacted almost entirely negatively” (Hill, 1991:30).

    1995, Randy Allen Harris, The Linguistics Wars
  2. not comparableDevoid of meaning.

    Clearly, if the conjunction of realism and antisemantic-realism had the consequence that truth is an accident, that would be a serious problem.

    2012, B.M. Taylor, Michael Dummett: Contributions to Philosophy, page 96
    2 more examples

    The antisemantic arguments tap into deeply held intuitions that computers are just not the sorts of things one can correctly view as cognitive agents, as persons.

    2014, Eric Dietrich, Thinking Computers and Virtual Persons, page xi

    Later, when William suggests that “the desire for children is hardwired,” Otto goes off on another antisemantic rant: “Hardwired.” You know, that's a term I've really come to loathe! It explains nothing, it justifies anything; you might as well say, "Humans have children because the Great Moth in the Sky wants them to." Or "Humans have children because humans have children." Hardwired," please! It's lazy, it's specious, it's perfunctory, and it's utterly without depth.

    2023, Peter Turchi, (Don't) Stop Me if You've Heard This Before, page 107
  3. not comparableHostile to meaning and clear communication; tending to conceal or undermine sense.

    In this chapter, I consider Donald Trump as an 'antisemantic' president and link antisemanticism to broader forms of populism.

    2022, Stephen Clingman, “Trump the Antisemantic, and the Boundaries of Populism”, in Merle A. Williams, editor, Cultures of Populism: Institutions, Practices and Resistance
    2 more examples

    The event is repressed at the level of direct expression and can only make itself felt again in what Abraham and Torok call the “antisemantic” features of language.

    2005, Peter Nicholls, “The poetics of opacity: readability and literary form”, in Janet Harbord, Jan Campbell, editors, Psycho-Politics And Cultural Desires, page 151

    Hitler always used the term "Socialist" to describe himself and his dogma, and he did not refer to hemself as a "Nazi," nor as a "Fascist," nor did he use the term "Third Reich." Those latter terms are used today by antisemantic socialists to shroud what Hitler and his admirers called themselves: SOCIALISTS.

    2022, Xun Lin, Dead Writers Club, The Monopoly On Violence
  4. misconstructionnot comparableMisconstruction of antisemitic.

    Satan is Antichrist and anti-semantic. Satan hates Jesus, and he hates the Jews!

    2015, John Addicks, Revelation: A Book Of Symbols Made Easy
    3 more examples

    After the pastor's death, however, the complainant reported that antisemantic publications were again being sold.

    1953, Philadelphia (Pa.). Commission on Human Relations, Report - Volumes 2-7, page 37

    In 2006, the Department of Homeland Security gaveout small amounts of grant money to synagogues and Jewish schools after they received threats from Muslims. A number of mosques, whose anti-semantic and anti-capitalist agenda generates fearful and defensive reactions, then began to help themselves to some of the available grant money.

    2010, Mary Christina Love, Walking the Plank: To a Dhimmi Nation

    Adolf Hilter had great persuasive power that he managed to convince his listeners with anti-semantic views and the rest is history.

    2014, Francis Chishala ·, A Robust Think Tank for Africa

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

antisemantic. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/antisemantic

MLA

“antisemantic.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/antisemantic. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “antisemantic,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/antisemantic.

Source: antisemantic on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.