If pictures function through natural generativity rather than conventional symbol schemes, Goodman's notational criteria—designed for conventional systems—are simply inapplicable rather than genuinely falsified by pictures.

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Conventional symbol schemes(contrasted with natural generativity as how pictures might work): Systems of representation that work because people agree on what the symbols mean, like words in a language or traffic signs—their meaning isn't natural, it's based on agreement.
Falsified(describing when a claim is shown to be incorrect): Proven to be false or wrong by finding evidence against it.
Natural generativity(as Schier's main theoretical concept): The idea that pictures work by tapping into the same natural, built-in abilities our brains already use to recognize real objects in the world.
Nelson Goodman(the philosopher whose theory is being discussed): A 20th-century American philosopher who developed theories about how symbols (like words, pictures, and artworks) work and mean things.
Notational criteria(Goodman's framework that may or may not apply to pictures): A set of rules or standards that determine what counts as a proper symbol system, created by Goodman to evaluate how things like writing and music notation work.
inapplicable(Non-classical or trivalent semantics for definite descriptions): A truth-value status attributed to a sentence that is neither straightforwardly true nor false, being partly true and partly false

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