[1] Truth-conditional theories of semantics attempt to define the meaning of a given proposition by explaining when the sentence is true.
It applied Tarski's semantic theory of truth to a problem it was not intended to solve, that of giving the meaning of a sentence.
Scott Soames has harshly criticized truth-conditional semantics on the grounds that it is either wrong or uselessly circular.
[2] Michael Dummett (1975) has objected to Davidson's program on the grounds that such a theory of meaning will not explain what it is a speaker has to know in order for them to understand a sentence.
Some authors working within the field of pragmatics have argued that linguistic meaning, understood as the output of a purely formal analysis of a sentence-type, underdetermines truth-conditions.