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Studies in Indian Philosophy
by interpolating the parenthetic phrase although it does not appear explicitly in the Sanskrit text. Once again, Helārāja's reading would suffice to detach the verse SS 4a from the special unnameability thesis Bl.
286
It is our view, however, that a closer examination of the genitive locutions in question will make it clear why they are not exceptions to Bl. There is a matched pair of these genitive locutions. One describes a certain demonstrated word (this) as vācaka, and the other describes a certain demonstrated meaning (that) as a vācya :
i. This is the signifier of that. ii. That is the signified of this.
demonstrative+compula+
Each has the grammatical structure singular nounphrase, or in our provisionally simplified termi nology name+copula+name. 12 Four names are involved :
a. this (word)
b. that (meaning)
c. the signifier of that d. the signified of that
and inspection will show that none of them names the significance (vācyavācaka) relation. Two of them (a and c) name a certain word, and the other two (b and d) name a certain meaning, or thing signified. So the constituent names of (i) and (ii) name arguments ("relata") of the relation in question. Two of them (c and d) are names of that special sort which in traditional grammar were called "relative terms": they denote some thing by reference to the relation it bears to something else. The relation figures in the process of understanding those relative terms, but not as denoted or named by those terms.
This analysis may help us to sharpen the contrast between what SS 3 says that the genitive locution can signify, and what SS 4 says that locutions in general cannot signify. What the genitive locution signifies, according to the last clause of SS 3, is something connected with the significance relation (its "thatness"), not the relation itself. We have no full account of what Bhartṛhari meant by "thatness " (tattvam), but we offer the following interpretation of the way it applies to the
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