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Abstract

In this paper we shall critically examine the two main arguments that W. V. Quine has presented in various forms to support his thesis of the indeterminacy of translation. If somebody objects that we have, from the very beginning, misrepresented the thesis by calling it “indeterminacy of meaning” whereas Quine names it “indeterminacy of translation”, here is our answer. Since translation as normally understood is a way of explaining meaning and there is considerable evidence that Quine intends that the word “translation” should be understood in its normal sense, his thesis could also be interpreted as a thesis of the indeterminacy of meaning. Here we shall discuss the thesis only in this sense.

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© 1985 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Qvarnström, BO. (1985). Indeterminacy of Meaning. In: Dorn, G., Weingartner, P. (eds) Foundations of Logic and Linguistics. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0548-2_27

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0548-2_27

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-0550-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-0548-2

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