Discussion Questions: 30 Jan

1. What are the implications of Quine's argument for a theory of meaning?

2. What are the consequences of Markman's interpretation of the "indeterminacy of translation" for a theory of meaning? For a theory of lexical acquisition?

3. Are children objectivists, by Markman's reasoning?

4. Once again, what does Markman mean by innate?

5. What is Siegler's worry about constraints? Is it a reasonable one?

6. Consider some of the details that would need to be dealt with in making Markman's constraints work.
   1. What steps would the child need to go through to appropriately apply the taxonomic and exclusivity constraints?
   2. What would happen when the child is confronted with a verb? In particular, what if a complete utterance consists of just a verb (as is common in many languages)?
   3. How would the child override the exclusivity constraint in learning a word like pet or animal?

7. What sort of theorists would be opposed to Markman's and Quine's arguments about indeterminacy? How would they respond to these arguments?