Symbol and Referent

  SYMBOL AND REFERENT

what That it,s mean?

As nouns the difference between Referent and Symbol


is that referent is (semantics) the specific entity in the world that world or phrase identifies.

or denotes while symbol is a character or glyph representing an idea, concept or object.


For example;

 "the cat over there looks unfriendly"

the symbol : the cat
the content : what a cat is like
the referent : the cat over there

 so..

symbol is something which we use to represent another thing - it might be a picture, a letter, a spoken or witten word - anything we use conventionally for the purpose.



referent is everything that related with symbol

this may sometimes be an object in the physical world ( the world rover is the symbol; a real dog is the referent). but it may be something which is not at all, or not obviously, present - like freedom, unicorns or hamlet.