ABSTRACT. Russell claims that the concept which occurs in the verbal noun is the very same as that which occurs as verb. Bloomfield defines the meaning of a linguistic form as the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response which it calls forth in the hearer. Blackburn writes that there is such a thing as the correct and incorrect application of a term: to say that there is such a thing is no more than to say that there is truth and falsity. There is a prelinguistic, pre-cognitive situation which seems to Davidson to constitute a necessary condition for thought and language.