Abstract
Although various theories of communicative competence have been put forward in applied linguistics, the dynamic process of negotiation of meaning in the individual has mostly been left unexplained, other than by Widdowson. This paper argues that Donald Davidson's philosophical analysis extends and elaborates Widdowson's argument and thus contributes to theories of communicative competence and second language education. Davidson's concepts of prior theories and passing theories are particularly suited to accounting for communication in a second language which is successful despite many mistakes and errors. Davidson starts his argument from the assumption of such successful communication, and not from the Chomskian ideal assumption of the knowledge of language. He then makes it clear that communication is a cognitive as well as a linguistic process. From his argument we learn that passing theories are one of the two major targets of second language education along with prior theories, and that teaching language for communication necessarily goes beyond the strict boundary of 'language' as is assumed in theoretical linguistics.
