A stranger points at a rabbit and says 'gavagai' — you can never be sure what it means

Philosopher W.V.O. Quine imagined a linguist recording a language never heard before, pointing at a rabbit as a speaker says 'gavagai'. It could mean 'rabbit' — or 'undetached rabbit-part', or 'rabbit-stage', or 'dinner'. Quine argued no amount of further observation can ever fully pin down which translation is objectively correct, because meaning is underdetermined by evidence.

— Willard Van Orman Quine, Word and Object — MIT Press, 1960
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