Part of What a Picture Is

WHAT IS the difference between describing something and depicting it? The answer lies not merely in the difference between words and pictures nor even in the difference between how each type of symbol relates to what it symbolizes. As will be argued, a general account of this distinction must be given in terms of what distinguishes the symbol systems in which words and pictures operate. In particular, pictorial systems are marked by a feature that I call continuous correlation. In his book Languages of Art Nelson Goodman forcefully argues that depiction or representation is not a property of a picture per se but is relative to the system that it is in. Though providing a general theory of symbol systems (from which this paper borrows), Goodman fails to give an adequate account of what marks pictorial systems. After an examination of his account this paper presents continuous correlation as the distinguishing feature of pictorial systems. In addition there will be noted a phenomenological correlate of this feature, what I call metaphorical identification.