This 10th-grade unit in Minnesota's "language-centered" curriculum introduces the complexity of linguistic meaning by demonstrating the relationships among linguistic symbols, their referents, their interpreters, and the social milieu. The unit begins with a discussion of Ray Bradbury's "The Kilimanjaro Machine," which illustrates how an otherwise obscure story becomes meaningfully clear as the referent emerges. Word-referent relationships ranging from denotation to connotation are illustrated by (1) Susanne Langer's analysis of the relationships between words and their referents, (2) selections from Paul Wendt and Vance Packard which point out the dimensions of extra-linguistic meaning, and (3) selections from Charlton Laird and S. I. Hayakawa which demonstrate referential and expressive meaning and the primacy of spoken language. Students are asked to construct a communication model to further clarify the symbolization processes of language. Included are lectures, inductive discussion questions with sample answers, and a bibliography on semantics. (JB)