Verbal Behavior: Extended Edition. Chapter 1: A Functional Analysis of Verbal Behavior. Quote 25

The impulse to explicate a meaning is easily understood. We ask, “What do you mean?” because the answer is frequently helpful … But the explication of verbal behavior should not be allowed to generate a sense of scientific achievement. One has not accounted for a remark by paraphrasing “what it means.” (p. 9)

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