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