在拒斥了意义的指称论和观念论后,蒯因认为只能以行为主义的方式来发现意义,即只能从可观察的、公开的言语行为中发现意义。由于缺少作为衡量标准的东西,言语行为也不能完全确定意义,由此产生了所谓的翻译的不确定性。翻译的不确定性是根本的,并非只存在于翻译中,而且不是翻译技巧等技术层面的完善所能弥补的。

After rejecting the referential theory of meaning and the ideational theory, Quine suggested the behaviorist theory which proposes that we just can find meaning from overt and observable verbal behavior．We cannot determine the meaning exactly from verbal behavior because there is no entity as a measurable criterion．That ’s where comes the indeterminacy of translation．The indeterminacy of translation is an essential problem on meaning，so this problem cannot be solved by translation skills．