Reference and Generality

If we are asked what, in general, it is that someone knows when he knows the meaning of a word, it seems natural enough to reply: what that word stands for. ‘Stands for’ is of course a metaphor. The phrase suggests a model or picture, of what happens when a language is instituted. The picture it suggests is this. There is an object in the world, and the word serves as a substitute for that object; as, that is, a kind of proxy: something that does duty for, or stands in place of the object.