So, What does a word point to?

The same as anything else that enters our heads.

I look at a tiger. The actual tiger is not now in my brain. An image is represented and decoded in my brain. The relevant sensory cortex, cross-referencing with my long-term memory, flags up the concept 'tiger' and I'm done.

I look at the printed word 'tiger'. The resulting image is now represented and decoded in my brain. The relevant sensory cortex, cross-referencing with my long-term memory, flags up the concept 'tiger' and I'm done.

Same process when I hear "Tiger!", just via a different cortex. None of these things-that-enter-my-head is a tiger.

There is no hard, fast boundary between, say, a photorealistic image and a printed word. Neither of them is the referent. They're both representations. Hieroglyphics are the missing link, if you like. Granted, a word may have nothing objectively to do with what it refers to, but a smiley :) looks nothing like a face, and we have no trouble decoding that. Why? Because we share common knowledge of that meme/word before we look. Nothing magical or different about words. Just a slightly different mental process of decoding before the cross-referencing and concept-flagging.

Language may well be hard-coded into the human brain, but to some extent this is because 'language' is how we experince the world: via signifiers and representations (yes, even when looking). The 'language of abstract symbols' (i.e. words) isn't a separate magisterium!

Try for yourself. Taboo 'word' back to 'information that enters my mind through medium x'. Then see if changing x fundamentally changes what happens in your brain.