"We are clarifying"

we are clarifying
by our various
pointings the use

of the words
is square but
neither is an

object squareness supposed
as object pointed
to nor need

it be supposed
available as reference
of the word

square no more
need be demanded
in explication of

is square or
any other phrase
than that our

listener learn when
to expect us
to apply it

to an object
and when not
there is no

need for the
phrase itself to
be a name

in turn of
a separate object
of any kind



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[Two consecutive sentences from Willard Van Orman Quine's From a Logical Point of View: Nine Logico-Philosophical Essays (Harvard UP, 1953), minus all punctuation and capitalization.]