Elements of Linguistics in the Indian Philosophy

Abstract

In a knowledge-oriented society, the knowledge of language and its function has remained the area of concern through centuries. In such investigations, it has raised several issues which are still object of enquiry. In the Indian intellectual tradition, the origin of language study and its different branches are rooted in the source civilizational texts like the Vedas¹ and the āgamas².

Nyāya and Vaiśeṣika advocate linguistic realism the history of which can be traced back to the upaniṣadic texts. According to the Naiyāyikas, if the world and language are created by the same will of God, then world – creation and language-creation begins at the same time. God’s will be efficiency (śakti) of language. Language consists of words and words consist of letters. So, words and letters like root (prakṛti), suffix (pratyaya) and particle (nipāta) are endowed with efficiency. The Nyāya linguists do not recognize that words are eternal (nitya). They also revise to recognize that the relation between words and referents is impersonal. Because for them words are non-eternal as they are produced and have a beginning from the personal God. When God wills in the form of language that the endowed with efficiency, it takes the form of mantras, brāhmaṇas, Vedāngas etc. which beat the sentient element of God. The principle of causality is also employed by the Naiyāyikas in the linguistic plan. If the presence or absence of one word invariably follows the presence or absence of another, then the relation between the two words would be considered as cause and effect. A mere word can not be cause of verbal cognition; it is knowledge of words that may give rise to the cognition of others by means of inherence (samavāya). Therefore, the knowledge of words is the instrumental cause. The recollection (smaraṇa) by means of denotative function is an operation (vyāpāra) and verbal cognition (śabda bodha) is the result. Thus, by means of recollected word-meaning, the understanding of the knowledge of words and that of relations constitute the cause of linguistic cognition according to the Naiyāyikas.