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    The Sanskrit Tradition: P Ānini - The First "Modern" Grammarian

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    Mat Noq Aiman
    Pānini was an ancient Indian grammarian who lived around 500-400 BC in what is now Pakistan. He is considered the first "modern" grammarian for his work in the Aşţādhyāyī, a Sanskrit grammar consisting of nearly 4000 sutras or aphorisms. Pānini's grammar focused on Sanskrit, the language of religion, philosophy, and learning at the time. His work established fundamental concepts in linguistics such as metarules, feeding order of rules, and thematic roles. Pānini's systematization of Sanskrit grammar had a profound and lasting influence on subsequent grammatical studies.

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    The Sanskrit Tradition: P Ānini - The First "Modern" Grammarian

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    Mat Noq Aiman
    131 views17 pages
    Pānini was an ancient Indian grammarian who lived around 500-400 BC in what is now Pakistan. He is considered the first "modern" grammarian for his work in the Aşţādhyāyī, a Sanskrit grammar consisting of nearly 4000 sutras or aphorisms. Pānini's grammar focused on Sanskrit, the language of religion, philosophy, and learning at the time. His work established fundamental concepts in linguistics such as metarules, feeding order of rules, and thematic roles. Pānini's systematization of Sanskrit grammar had a profound and lasting influence on subsequent grammatical studies.

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    The Sanskrit Tradition

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    Pānini was an ancient Indian grammarian who lived around 500-400 BC in what is now Pakistan. He is considered the first "modern" grammarian for his work in the Aşţādhyāyī, a Sanskrit grammar consisting of nearly 4000 sutras or aphorisms. Pānini's grammar focused on Sanskrit, the language of religion, philosophy, and learning at the time. His work established fundamental concepts in linguistics such as metarules, feeding order of rules, and thematic roles. Pānini's systematization of Sanskrit grammar had a profound and lasting influence on subsequent grammatical studies.

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    131 views17 pages

    The Sanskrit Tradition: P Ānini - The First "Modern" Grammarian

    Uploaded by

    Mat Noq Aiman
    Pānini was an ancient Indian grammarian who lived around 500-400 BC in what is now Pakistan. He is considered the first "modern" grammarian for his work in the Aşţādhyāyī, a Sanskrit grammar consisting of nearly 4000 sutras or aphorisms. Pānini's grammar focused on Sanskrit, the language of religion, philosophy, and learning at the time. His work established fundamental concepts in linguistics such as metarules, feeding order of rules, and thematic roles. Pānini's systematization of Sanskrit grammar had a profound and lasting influence on subsequent grammatical studies.

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    The Sanskrit tradition

    Pnini the first modern grammarian

    Pnini, inspired by Shiva


    Born in the north-west, in a

    town near the Indus river, in what is now Pakistan It is unclear when he lived, perhaps around 500 or 400 BC Not the founder of grammar in India (P. mentions names of other grammarians) Main work: Adhyy, a grammar consisting of almost 4000 sutras

    Panini: Sutra in the Hindu Scriptures


    A Sutra or an aphorism is a short formula with

    the least possible number of letters, without any ambiguity or doubtful assertion, containing the very essence, embracing all meanings, without any stop or obstruction and absolutely faultless in nature. (Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda)

    Pnini grammar is devoted to Sanskrit, the

    purified language of religion, philosophy and learning, as it was in use around 500 BC. Sanskrit is a variety of the Indo-Aryan language spoken in the north of the Indian subcontinent from 1500 BC onward. The oldest forms of this language are known as Vedic Sanskrit, the language of the Rigveda, and the other Vedas.

    Even in Pninis time, Sanskrit was not the

    language of everyday life, but Pkrit and Pli. Pkrit is the language of the oldest inscriptions, Pli the language of many Buddhist texts Sanskrit was closely associated with Brahmin priests and the Hindu religion

    Types of rules in Panini


    definitions

    metarules
    headings operational rules

    Format operational rules


    context-sensitive rule

    A B / C __ D (replace A by B when preceded by C and followed by D) Panini version: A: genitive, B nominative, C ablative and D locative.

    Other types of rule


    AB C (coalescence rule)

    A AA (reduplication)

    Affixation
    is done by context sensitive rules of the first

    kind, but because nothing is replaced, there is no genitive modern version could be: aff / C __ D (note that P. already used zero elements, e.g. by defining deletion as replacement by zero) distinction made between roots, stems and words for affixation

    Compounding
    A: nominative, B: locative

    A is compounded with B

    Terms
    distinction between object language and

    metalanguage (ordinary terms vs technical terms)

    Metarules
    Rule ordering: feeding principle (tacitly

    assumed by P. ): assume that rules are ordered in a feeding relation Elsewhere principle (special rules supersede general rules)

    Feeding and Counterfeeding


    (1) A B (2) B C Input: {A, A, A, B, B, C} Output: {C,C,C,C,C,C} when (1) and (2) are in feeding order (1 < 2) Output: {B,B,B,C,C,C} when (1) and (2) are in counterfeeding order

    Bleeding and Counterbleeding


    1. A B

    2. A C

    Rule 1 bleeds rule 2 iff rule 1 removes some of the environments where rule 2 may apply

    Thematic Roles
    Krakas expressed generalizations about

    thematic roles such as Agent, Goal, Recipient, Location, etc. E.g. Agent is expressed either by active endings on the verb or by instrumental case on the noun. Only one mode of expression is allowed, so if the verb is active, use the endings, if the verb is passive, use instrumental case.

    Modern terms from Sanskrit grammarians


    sandhi (stuff happening at the edges, English:

    an apple / a pear, the answer/the question) dvandva (coordinative compound: poetpainter) bahuvrihi (possessive compound: longlegged, narrow-minded) svarabhakti (epenthesis)

    Background reading
    George Cardona, Panini His work and its

    traditions, 2nd ed., Delhi, 1997 J.F. Staal, Reader on the Sanskrit Grammarians. South Asia Books, 1986

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