Within Piaget’s developmental theory the distinction between figurative and operative knowing is clarified and related to symbolic functioning. Acquisition of language is placed within the framework of the child’s acquisition of representational behavior. Questions about the relation of thinking and language can be meaningfully discussed if one focuses on the operative aspect of thinking and the figurative aspect of language. The meaning of a symbol, verbal or otherwise, is identified with the underlying operative scheme of the user of the symbol and is not an inherent property of the symbolic material. Piaget’s view is anti-empiricsitic; yet he explains the development of the operative structures and does not posit them as innate. A propositional language becomes a chief aid to thinking at the formal operational stage; however, Piaget does not consider verbal language as a principal determiner of development at the sensori-motor or concrete operational stages.