elisa freschiReading and comparing theories on sentence-meaning (part 1) – elisa freschi https://elisafreschi.com These pages are a sort of virtual desktop of Elisa Freschi. You can find here my cv and some random thoughts on Sanskrit (and) Philosophy. All criticism welcome! Contributions are also welcome! Wed, 22 Apr 2026 19:06:15 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Reading and comparing theories on sentence-meaning (part 1) https://elisafreschi.com/2018/05/30/reading-and-comparing-theories-on-sentence-meaning-part-1/ https://elisafreschi.com/2018/05/30/reading-and-comparing-theories-on-sentence-meaning-part-1/#comments Wed, 30 May 2018 13:12:33 +0000 elisa freschi http://elisafreschi.com/?p=2778 The Mīmāṃsaka Śālikanātha is Prabhākara’s main interpreter, yet he is also an original thinker. How much of Śālikanātha’s anvitābhidhāna theory for sentence signification is already there in Prabhākara’s Bṛhatī? We will find out reading the Bṛhatī and comparing it with Śālikanātha’s commentary thereon and with Śālikanātha’s elaboration of the topic in his independent treatise, the Vākyārthamātṛkā, during this workshop.

Prabhākara’s Bṛhatī commentary on 1.1.25 starts with a discussion of the meaning of sentences in the Veda and in ordinary communication.

The main topic, however, comes immediately after that, namely: whether sheer padārthas can be linguistically conveyed on their own, apart from their being syntactically connected in a sentence meaning. The basic starting point is that vṛddhavyavahāra occurs through connected sentence-meanings, not through isolated word-meanings. Hence, the linguistic reality of connected sentence-meanings is evident, that of isolated word-meanings is not.

Prabhākara seems to say that isolated word-meanings are not linguistically conveyed, Śālikanātha states that they are remembered on the basis of words, but not denoted by words.

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