Variable modification in golang [Mutability]

The below code opens up a .txt file and counts the word frequencies. I am following a book and I got confused:

My question is here:

filename := os.Args[1]
frequencyForWord := map[string]int{}
updateFrequencies(filename, frequencyForWord)
fmt.Println(frequencyForWord)

I create a variable called frequencyForWord and pass it into a function that does not return anything called func updateFrequencies

This function modifies the variable and that's why when I do fmt.Println(frequencyForWord) it shows me a map that has words as keys and their counts as values.

My question is:

why don't I have to do something like this

frequencyForWord = updateFrequencies(filename, frequencyForWord)
fmt.Println(frequencyForWord)
// And then change func updateFrequencies to something to returns a map

I thought in order for a function to modify a variable I need to pass in the variable as a reference like this updateFrequencies(filename, &frequencyForWord)

Original Code:

package main
import(
"fmt"
"path/filepath"
"os"
"log"
"bufio"
"strings"
"unicode"
)
func main() {
if len(os.Args) == 1 || os.Args[1] == "-h" {
fmt.Printf("usage: %s <file>\n", filepath.Base(os.Args[0]))
os.Exit(1)
}
filename := os.Args[1]
frequencyForWord := map[string]int{}
updateFrequencies(filename, frequencyForWord)
fmt.Println(frequencyForWord)
}
func updateFrequencies(filename string, frequencyForWord map[string]int) string {
file, err := os.Open(filename)
if err != nil {
log.Printf("Failed to open the file: %s.", filename)
}
defer file.Close()
readAndUpdateFrequencies(bufio.NewScanner(file), frequencyForWord)
}
func readAndUpdateFrequencies(scanner *bufio.Scanner, frequencyForWord map[string]int) {
for scanner.Scan() {
for _, word := range SplitOnNonLetter(strings.TrimSpace(scanner.Text())) {
frequencyForWord[strings.ToLower(word)] += 1
}
}
if err := scanner.Err(); err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
}
func SplitOnNonLetter(line string) []string {
nonLetter := func(char rune) bool { return !unicode.IsLetter(char) }
return strings.FieldsFunc(line, nonLetter)
}

Because the map structure doesn't contain the values itself but points to the structures holding the values.

As written in the documentation :

> Like slices, maps hold references to an underlying data structure. If
> you pass a map to a function that changes the contents of the map, the
> changes will be visible in the caller.

That's just like when you pass a pointer to a function : it lets the function change your value.

Here's another example of the same phenomenon :

type A struct {
b *B
}
type B struct {
c int
} 
func incr(a A) {
a.b.c++
}
func main() {
a := A{}
a.b = new(B)
fmt.Println(a.b.c) // prints 0
incr(a)
fmt.Println(a.b.c) // prints 1
}

The function is not modifying the variable, but the value bound to the variable. That's possible because a map is a mutable data structure and passing it to a function does not copy the structure. (A map is implicitly a reference to a hash table and the reference is passed around.)