The general label applied by cognitive linguists (particularly Gilles Fauconnier, George Lakoff and Ronald Langacker in their writings) to formal approaches to semantics which assume that language refers to a mind-independent 'objective' reality. In contrast, Fauconnier, Lakoff, Langacker and others assume that when language refers to external reality it always does so indirectly, by virtue of referring to concepts which inhere in the conceptual system. On this view, the conceptual system constitutes our knowledge-base concerning the world 'out there' and thus our projected reality. In essence, cognitive linguists take what is sometimes termed a 'representational' rather than a 'denotational' view of linguistic reference.