[Grammar] What's the difference between 'stand for' and 'refer to'?

[Kyle]

Yesterday I asked a classmate, who is British, to check the grammatical mistakes of my essay. One of the sentences he changed is:

Mine: In contrast, a 'topic' stands for specific people, incidents and events, such as 'SARS killed another 10 patients'.
His: In contrast, a 'topic' refers to specific people, incidents and events, such as 'SARS killed another 10 patients'.

What's the difference between these two words?

[Viviana C. Ribichich]

Originally Posted by Kyle

Yesterday I asked a classmate, who is British, to check the grammatical mistakes of my essay. One of the sentences he changed is:

Mine: In contrast, a 'topic' stands for specific people, incidents and events, such as 'SARS killed another 10 patients'.
His: In contrast, a 'topic' refers to specific people, incidents and events, such as 'SARS killed another 10 patients'.

What's the difference between these two words?

Let me tell you these are prepositional verbs, in fact. Stand for means represent, for example: The 1 stands for one; or, support, for example: Strikers stand for the salary raise. On the other hand, refer to means consult something or somebody to get information, for example: Refer to the librarian if you need that book/Homeless refers to people who have no place to live.

Cordially,

Viviana