Sheets of paper exist almost entirely for the purpose of carrying information, so we tend to think of them as neutral objects. We rarely interpret marks on paper as references to the paper itself.   (A)  , when we see the text, characters, and images on artifacts that serve other purposes, we generally interpret these marks as labels that do refer to their carriers. Natural objects do not come with labels, of course, but these days, most physical artifacts do.   (B)  , their designers have chosen to shift part of the burden of communication from the form and materials of the artifact itself to lightweight surface symbols. So, for example, a designer of door handles might not worry about communicating their functions through their shapes, but might simply mark them ‘push’ and ‘pull.’