Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.22210/suvlin.2021.092.03
Metalinguistic elements and procedures in the analyses of ancient Indian grammarians
Goran Kardaš
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb
Abstract
The article presents and analyzes some of the most prominent metalinguistic elements in the grammatical
analyses of the ancient Indian grammarians starting with Pāṇini (4 BC), such as tehnical terms (saṃjñā) and
especially metarules (paribhāṣā). It is quite apparent that Indian grammarians made an explicit distinction
between an object (natural) language (Sanskrit) and a special language by means of which the analysis and
description of the object language are performed, i.e. metalanguage. The latter, besides the metalinguistic
elements mentioned above, also comprises special notational conventions which Indian grammarians used
in order to achieve economy and brevity in formulating grammatical rules in the narrow sense. Special
attention is paid to the analysis of the metarule A 1. 1. 68 that, as it seems, makes the nowadays common
metalinguistic distinction between use (denotation) and mention (autoreference). Apart from deep insight
into the language structures that are not apparent at the surface level of the mere grammatical description,
Indian grammarians are also credited for developing rigorous rational methodology for analysis that was
paradigmatic for all other scientific branches in India, including philosophy.
Keywords
metalinguistics; Indian grammarians; Sanskrit; indology
Hrčak ID:
269765
URI
Publication date:
31.12.2021.
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