Abstract: The theory of meaning may either attempt to explain what it is to have the concepts expressible in a particular language (full-blooded theory), or merely to associate concepts with words in that particular language (modest theory). A theory of meaning suggested by Davidson, according to which knowing the meaning of a sentence consists in the ability to produce a T-schema for that sentence, is a modest theory. But such a theory will be either a translation manual (in which case it does not explain the knowledge of language), or will have to be construed holistically (in which case a systematic account of the mastery of language is impossible).

Keywords: Davidsonholism, meaning, Tarski, theory of meaning, truth,