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 133

Capability of Expression in Language : (107) limitations. To consider the limitations of words-symbols and language is therefore, very necessary. Objects, facts and feelings are infinite but word-stock is limited. Take the word, red, for instance. It denotes the red colour. But there are many shades, degrees and combinations of red. Is the single word red capable of denoting all varieties of red? Take another example, when a person who has actually tested guda (raw-sugar) tells someone else who has never tested it, that guda is sweet. Will the listener be able to comprehend the exact meaning of the word 'sweet', which the person wants to communicate? Guda has a unique taste of sweetness and this sweetness cannot be comprehended by another person who has never tested guda. A word may be general but the experience is always particular. General words may indicate to particular but cannot denote them in their entirety. Words are only suggestive of their objects. There is no similarity between the two. Words get their meanings according to the Jainas, by tradition or convention. The Buddhists have described word as born of the need for alternatives (of objects etc.): vikalpayonayaḥ sabdāh. Though, the words are expressive of their meanings or objects, but there is no similarity between words and their objects. In fact, they cannot be regarded as even complete and real picture of their objects. A word does have the capability of presenting a picture of its meaning (object) on the basis of its pre-established expressive-expressed relation, but this capability is limited as well as relative. Expressibility of Reality
Language and word-symbols are of course, the indicator of their objects or meanings but they have their own limitations also. It is because of this limitation that the object reality remains unexpressed to some extent. Moreover, if the general feelings and experiences are not expressed in their entirety, the question of the expression of the ultimate reality becomes at the more complex. The problem of expressibility and inexpressibility of reality has been shaking off the human mind from the very beginning of the Indian thought. The reason of the inexpressibility of reality, in fact, lies in the limitation of the word-stock, word-power and confinement of the language with the limitations of existence and non-existence. That is why, the voice regarding inexpressibility of reality has been much prominent from the distant past.