In Sanskrit semantics, authors distinguished between a signifier (vācaka) and a signi- fied (vācya), both derived from the verb ‘to signify’ vac-. This first part of the handbook will try to shed some light on the nature of this signifier. More specifically, the ensu- ing debate revolves around the concepts of phone or phoneme (varṇa), word (pada) and sentence (vākya). The debate around speech units is traced back to the early grammatical theories, where phonemes and words are defined in purely phono-morphological terms and without recourse to meaning. This early stage is followed by further theories with a focus on the radical difference between meaningless phonemes and meaningful words, and the account of different concepts or levels of reality (Ch. 1).
Linguistic Segmentation in Early Vyākaraṇa
Maria Piera Candotti
2020-01-01
Abstract
In Sanskrit semantics, authors distinguished between a signifier (vācaka) and a signi- fied (vācya), both derived from the verb ‘to signify’ vac-. This first part of the handbook will try to shed some light on the nature of this signifier. More specifically, the ensu- ing debate revolves around the concepts of phone or phoneme (varṇa), word (pada) and sentence (vākya). The debate around speech units is traced back to the early grammatical theories, where phonemes and words are defined in purely phono-morphological terms and without recourse to meaning. This early stage is followed by further theories with a focus on the radical difference between meaningless phonemes and meaningful words, and the account of different concepts or levels of reality (Ch. 1).I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
