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The IUP Journal of English Studies

Exploring the Defining Influence of Pa n?inian Grammatical Tradition Over Modern Linguistics

Article Details

Pub. Date	: Sep, 2020
Product Name	: The IUP Journal of English Studies
Product Type	: Article
Product Code	: IJES100920
Author Name	: Prabha Shankar Dwivedi and Chesta Shrimali
Availability	: YES
Subject/Domain	: Arts & Humanities
Download Format	: PDF Format
No. of Pages	: 12

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Abstract

This paper looks into the foundational conceptions of modern linguistics that caused its emergence and continued to support its functional growth to its present form. Providing substantial textual evidence, the paper intends to establish a strong historical and thematic relationship between classical Indian and modern Western approaches to the study of language. Scholars of linguistics would largely agree with the contention that the theses propounded by linguists like Ferdinand de Saussure, Leonard Bloomfield, and Noam Chomsky were very much tied to their study of Sanskrit grammar and its philosophy. To delineate the Paninian tradition of grammar, the paper briefly analyzes and introduces Panini's Astadhyayi which is considered to be the first systematically documented grammatical work of any language bringing its impact over the existing methods of language study to light. It further discusses the linguistic conceptions that appeared in other major works of Paninian tradition, namely, Katyayana's Varttika, Patanjali's Mahabhasya , and Bhartihari's Vakyapadiya. The paper substantiates its claim through the comparative discussion of the similarities between the concepts such as Saussure's linguistic signs and Bhartihari's Sphota theory, Saussure's idea of indivisibility and Bhartihari's idea of akhandavakyasphota (monistic approach),'the concept of Psychological entities in both, Derrida's Differance and and Bharti hari's Sabdatattva, Chomsky's Innate Structure and Bharti hari's Pratibha, etc. Supporting its claim with textual testimonies, the paper argues that the Paninian tradition of grammar informed the core of modern linguistics and associated critical theories like (post) structuralism.

Introduction

Comparative studies of Indian grammatical tradition with the methods of studying languages in the West have been an interesting area of investigation for the scholars since the late eighteenth century when Sir William Jones proposed and substantiated that Sanskrit offered