Sphoṭa
How the mind orders linguistic units into coherent discourse and meaning / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Sphoṭa (Sanskrit: स्फोट, IPA: [ˈspʰoːʈɐ]; "bursting, opening", "spurt") is an important concept in the Indian grammatical tradition of Vyakarana, relating to the problem of speech production, how the mind orders linguistic units into coherent discourse and meaning.
The theory of sphoṭa is associated with Bhartṛhari (c. 5th century[1]), an early figure in Indic linguistic theory, mentioned in the 670s by Chinese traveller Yijing. Bhartṛhari is the author of the Vākyapadīya ("[treatise] on words and sentences"). The work is divided into three books, the Brahma-kāṇḍa, (or Āgama-samuccaya "aggregation of traditions"), the Vākya-kāṇḍa, and the Pada-kāṇḍa (or Prakīrṇaka "miscellaneous").
He theorized the act of speech as being made up of three stages:
- Conceptualization by the speaker (Paśyantī "idea")
- Performance of speaking (Madhyamā "medium")
- Comprehension by the interpreter (Vaikharī "complete utterance").
Bhartṛhari is of the śabda-advaita "speech monistic" school which identifies language and cognition. According to George Cardona, "Vākyapadīya is considered to be the major Indian work of its time on grammar, semantics and philosophy."