This paper develops a theoretical framework in which semantic processes are understood as the dynamics of an evolving field of meaning. Meanings, concepts, and interpretations are treated not as isolated units, but as elements of a relational configuration whose patterns can stabilize, transform, and reorganize into new states. The essay argues that the dynamics of this field are metastable and partly shaped by microvitic influences that spread within the field and modulate semantic relations. At the same time, the paper draws attention to an epistemological problem: the inner organization of both individual and collective meaning-space remains largely inaccessible to direct observation. In this sense, semantics appears as a black box. Recent developments in large language models, however, open up possible methodological perspectives. If there is at least a partial structural similarity between human and machine-learned semantics, such systems may help make the hidden regularities of semantic fields more empirically accessible.
Hans-Joachim Rudolph (Fri,) studied this question.