In Robin’s linguistics class, the teacher and students are discussing how the word “nice” once meant “foolish” and how “awful” used to mean “full of awe.” They are most likely discussing __________.

The examples focus on how the meanings of words have changed over time: “nice” once meant “foolish,” and “awful” once meant “full of awe.” The study of word and sentence meaning is semantics, so the correct choice is semantics. Morphemes are meaningful word parts, phonemes are speech sounds, and syntax concerns how words are arranged into sentences.

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