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I think the elementary uses of a word may be distinguished as indicative, imperative, and interrogative. When a child sees his mother coming, he may say "mother"; this is the indicative use. When he wants her, he calls "mother!"; this is the imperative use. When she dresses up as a witch and he begins to pierce the disguise, he may say "mother?"; this is the interrogative use. The indicative use must come first in the acquisition of language, since the association of word and object signified can only be created by the simultaneous presence of both. But the imperative use very quickly follows. This is relevant in considering what we mean by "thinking of" an object. It is obvious that the child who has just learnt to call his mother has found verbal expression for a state in which he had often been previously, that the state was associated with his mother, and that it has now become associated with the word "mother".
Source: My Philosophical Development, 1959, by Bertrand Russell
More info.: https://russell-j.com/beginner/BR_MPD_13-030.HTM