Yaska
ID: 68af904e-ad6e-4c23-a4a9-537122db36f3 REVIEW_SCORE: 0.0 MTIME: [2024-12-25 Wed 15:54]
1. Personal
- Dated at least a century before Plato (4th century BCE), possibly as early as the 9th century BCE
- Successor of Sakatayana
- Author of the Nighantu and the Nirukta
2. Nirukta
2.1. Vedanga on etymology
2.2. A commentary on Nighantu, a compilation of rare or difficult words
The Nighanu and Nirukta are typically treated as one document.
3. Ideas
3.1. Four main categories of words
- Nama - nouns
- Akhyata - verbs
- Upasarga - prefixes
- Nipata - particles
3.2. Two main ontological categories of speech
- Words became nouns or verbs depnding on which feature was predominant.
3.3. Words are the primary carriers of meaning
- This is as opposed to sentences being the primary carriers of meaning, which is the Paninian position
- The debate in which this is a position is between Nairuktas and Vaiyakaranas
- It is part of the larger debate regarding compositionality between Mimamsakas and Vaiyakaranas
- Gargya, of the opposiing side, argues for example that prepositions have various senses of their own even when detached, where Sakatayana argues that they only contribute to word-meanings and have no sense in themselves.
- The Nairukta's position is exposited in Sakatayana's sutra:
- samhita pada-prakrtih
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