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(84) : Jaina Philosophy of Language (8) Sākāňkşa-pada (term with mutual expectancy) is a sentence in
itself
According to certain thinkers every term with mutual expectancy apart from being the part of a sentence, has its own independent existence nevertheless. In this theory, the independent individuality of every term is accepted. The terms do not loose their own meanings even when they have a collective existence (in a sentence). This theory emphasises the independent existence and importance of the terms in a sentence. It is different from the theory of the complex (sanghāta) and that of the successivism (kramavāda) in the sense that whereas in both of the theories terms are primary and sentence is secondary, in this theory on the basis of mutual expectancy of term importance is given to sentence. It also believes, of course, that terms are relative and have their meaning only within a sentence and not out of it. In fact, this theory is very near to the Jaina concept, because the Jaina philosophers also regard sentence as an absolute collection of the terms with mutual expectancy. The Jaina view
Jainism regards the sentence as an absolute collection of the terms with mutual expectancy, but it gives equal importance to both the sentence as well as the terms. According to it, neither a sentence is possible without the terms not the terms are capable to express their meaning without a sentence. Terms get their meaning only in a sentence, not independent of it. On the other hand, without the terms there is no existence of a sentence also. Terms and sentence both enjoy a relative existence and have relative importance. None of them can express its meaning in the absence of any of them. To make the meaning expressive, the sentence will have to be relative to the terms and vice versa. The Jaina philosophers have accepted the relative truth of all the theories but has not given undue emphasis on any one aspect. According to them, the term and the sentence are incapable of imparting meaning if are treated absolutely exclusive of each other. Their capability of expressing meaning lies in their mutual relativity. The expression of the meaning of the sentence is the relativity of term and the mental relativity between the sentence and the terms. Mutually non-relative terms, terms non-relative to a sentence and sentence non-relative to terms have neither their existence nor have capability of
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