  At a minimum it might have consisted merely in the accurate mapping of a language’s vocabulary onto the natural genera and species that constitute reality, so that each word corresponds to precisely one entity. But such a mapping could in principle be done even if the actual words were formed and assigned on a random basis, which would be entirely compatible with Hermogenes’ conventionalism. Since Socrates and Hermogenes seem agreed that that original stance has now been undermined, and since it is the actual making of names that has been presented as an expertise, not merely their assignment once made, it is clear that Socratic naturalism must lie not merely in a correct mapping relation, but in each word’s formation as one specifically appropriate to its object. What kind of appropriateness is at issue?