Semantics
Semantics: The study of the way language signals meanings and their changes. A much broader use and application of semiotics, semantics includes the way words relate to what they signify (Frye).
Semantics has a strong basing on syntax being that semantics is the way language signals relate to general meanings, or symbolic logic (Frye).
Citation
Frye, Northrop, Sheridan Baker, George Perkins, and Barbara Perkins.The Harper Handbook To Literature. 2nd ed. New York: Longman, 1997.