Jaina Philosophy of Language

SR No.: 001601
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Sagarmal Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith
Publication Year: 2006
Total Pages: 168
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, & Language
File Size: 10 MB

Page 121

The Jaina Philosophy of Sentence : (95) hearing the complete sentence. Thus, the terms are correlated and relative, they are not absolute. It is not possible to make a sentence by the absolute terms. As the words are dependent on the letters for their meaning, so also terms are relative to a sentence for their meaning. According to Jainācāryas, sentence is an absolute unit of relative terms.
There are two different points of views working behind the said theories. According to Anvitābhidhänavāda, the sentence is term-related. It emphasises the existence of terms in a sentence. Term is the unit on which the meaning of a sentence depends. Anvitābhidhānavāda on the other hand, regards terms as sentence-related. It accepts neither an independent existence of terms nor the significance of terms without a sentence. It accepts the sentences itself as a unit. In Anvitābhidhānavāda, the terms are primary and the sentence is secondary. But the Jainas regard both the terms and the sentences as mutually related and their contribution towards the understanding of the meaning of a sentence is equally necessary and important. They, thus strike a happy synthesis between the two views and regard both the term and the sentence as having important roles. To emphasise any one at the cost of other is not reasonable. Terms and sentences are neither different from each other nor they are identical. In the comprehension of the meaning of a sentence, both cannot be ignored. References: 1. (a) Padānam tu tadapekṣāņāṁ nirapekṣaḥ samudāyo vākyamiti- Prameya-kamala
märtanda p. 458
(b) Syādvādaratnākara-p. 941 2. (a) Prameya-kamala-märtanda - pp. 458-465.
(b) Syadvādaratnākara-pp-641-647
(c) Bhāṣātattva Evas Vākyapadiya- p. 85-96 3. (a) These two verses quoted in Prameya-kamala-mārtanda (p. 459) are incorrect.
I have got them corrected. 4. Padārthānam tu mūlatvamistaṁ tadbhāvanāvatah/Mimārsã-śloka-vārtika- 111
(b) Ibid.- 336 5. Prameya-kamala-mārtanda, pp- 464-65 6. Kavya-prakāśa (Ācārya Viśveśvara), p. 37 7. Prameya-kamala-mārtanda 3/101 pp-457-464.