depiction pictorial representation, also sometimes called ‘iconic representation.’ Linguistic representation is conventional: it is only by virtue of a convention that the word ‘cats’ refers to cats. A picture of a cat, however, seems to refer to cats by other than conventional means; for viewers can correctly interpret pictures without special training, whereas people need special training to learn languages. Though some philosophers, such as Goodman (Languages of Art), deny that depiction involves a non-conventional element, most are concerned to give an account of what this non-conventional element consists in. Some hold that it consists in resemblance: pictures refer to their objects partly by resembling them. Objections to this are that anything resembles anything else to some degree; and that resemblance is a symmetric and reflexive relation, whereas depiction is not. Other philosophers avoid direct appeal to resemblance: Richard Wollheim (Painting as an Art) argues that depiction holds by virtue of the intentional deployment of the natural human capacity to see objects in marked surfaces; and Kendall Walton (Mimesis as Make-Believe) argues that depiction holds by virtue of objects serving as props in reasonably rich and vivid visual games of make-believe. See also MIMESIS , PEIRC. B.Ga.