Words are Not What They Refer to — The Map is Not the Territory

Abstract

Rene Magritte’s well known picture of the pipe may be taken as a wonderful illustration of how people often mix symbols and what these symbols stand for. My picture of an apple (Picture 22), modeled on that by Magritte, is to help me illustrate the relationship in question. Show this picture to a friend, cover the words saying ‘this is not an apple’, and ask the question: ‘what is it?’ The likelihood will be very high that your friend will say ‘this is an apple’. When you start talking about the picture and point to the fact that it is not really an apple, that it should be seen as a picture, a representation, a symbol of an apple, your friend will certainly agree and probably add that what you are saying is obvious and that you are involving him or her in a fruitless exercise. Note, however, that your friend’s answer to the original question was ‘this is an apple’, which, strictly speaking, was obviously wrong and which reflects a major confusion between a symbol (for instance, the picture of an apple) and what it refers to (a real apple which you can buy in the produce section of a grocery store).

…most people act about as conscious of their linguistic environment as fish appear conscious of the water in which they swim. (Bourland 1974: 89)