关键词: 语言, 图像, 符号, 实指, 虚指

Abstract: Language and writing are two different systems. Language as a system of sound symbols has the unique feature of containing "image" (verbal icon) in the sounds, and while writing, compared with the other images, are images that can be pronounced. A further reflection leads to the observation that the resemblance between the verbal icon and the referent can only decide the relation between the meaning and the referent but cannot undermine the arbitrary relationship between the pronunciation and the verbal icon or between the signifier and the signified. In other words, it cannot change the nature of the linguistic sign to signify the congruent reference. Since image is not the mark of sound, the "similarity" between signifier and signified underlies its signification of the phantom reference. The audiences interpret the image on the basis of the mental imagery to assume the image's realness, which reinforces the subjective impetus for the image to signify the phantom reference.

Key words: language, image, symbol, congruent reference, phantom reference