_______________________________________________________
I'd suggest adding something along these lines:
4) an entity that can communicate the association. ___________________________________________________
I don't know,
tsuwm, but I can see how the addition of a communicator could sharpen the distinction between an accidental environmental association such as a photographic, and therefore symbolic, representation of a nubile and nude female form when seen by a hot-blooded adolescent male, as compared with the more word-like allusions to the circumstances of human coupling that can be read in Harlequin paperback books of romance.
But what happens then to the information laden dance of honeybees? Some biologists consider their dance much more than just math or mere words, some consider their elaborate wiggling display which gives detailed account about the world around them, a virtual language.
Who here is the origional communicator?
Another pertinent point...
Can a real object "symbolize" another real object such as the natural association of Mount Fuji with the nation of Japan?
If so then is "Mount Fuji" a word?
( I refer, of course, to the physical reality of the mountain and not the mountain's name)
And is Pavlof's bell a word or just an expectant ring?
(I just threw that in.)
