Measurement is downstream of semantics, not the reverse.

Evidence

As such, this volume uses terminology rarely seen in the literature on indicators, measurement, etc. Concepts are about definitions, semantics, ontology, meaning, and the like. Downstream we often want to have numeric, quantitative measures of these concepts—the so-called indicators. J. S. Mill started with “names” in his System of logic, not indicators of names. — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts and Measurement, 39