The meaning of LMA and location counter in GNU ld

[ali hagigat]

What is the real meaning of LMA? is it a physical address?
When we assign some numbers to the location counter, what these
numbers mean? Are they physical addresses? or virtual addresses? or
they are just local addresses for ld?
When we use some addresses in a linker command file, are they final
physical addresses? or they show a range of 4 GB virtual addresses for
a 32 bit Intel machine?