ABSTRACT
This chapter contains a very brief introduction to truth-conditional semantics, perhaps just framing an issue, followed by an example. It is followed by a short discussion and then a series of questions. There is a very strong connection between truth and meaning. It would seem very natural to say that to know what an expression means is to know when it could be applied truthfully. The example presents a case where Brian, a small child, is learning English. His parents are Briony and Paul. Brian does not already grasp the meaning of many expressions in English. The questions are intended to get the philosophy students thinking about this problems. They have used these kinds of questions in seminars as the questions set for seminars, so they also think that they can be used to spark conversation and discussion. The chapter also gives a cursory sketch of some of the ways in which philosophers have responded to the thought experiment.
