{"id":1146,"date":"2010-12-13T10:00:10","date_gmt":"2010-12-13T08:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elanguage.net\/blogs\/booknotices\/?p=1146"},"modified":"2010-09-24T10:00:36","modified_gmt":"2010-09-24T08:00:36","slug":"theories-of-language-oriental-and-occidental","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/?p=1146","title":{"rendered":"Theories of language: Oriental and Occidental"},"content":{"rendered":"
Theories of language: <\/strong>Oriental and Occidental. By Korada Subrahmanyam<\/strong>. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld (P) Ltd., 2008. Pp. xii, 172. ISBN 9788124604557<\/a>. $17.50.<\/div>\n

Reviewed by Michael W. Morgan<\/strong><\/a>, Addis Ababa University<\/em><\/p>\n

This book contrasts two lines of linguistic theory, ancient and modern, Indian and Western. As Korada Subrahmanyam is an Indian linguist from an orthodox Brahmin family, literally raised on P\u0101\u1e47\u031fini, his presentation of the former is, not surprisingly, more thorough and authoritative, but his discussion of modern Western linguistic theory is also of interest, not the least in providing an outside view.<\/p>\n

The preface (v\u2013vii) summarizes the author\u2019s credentials, his views of the relative merits of the two systems, and his motivation for writing this book<\/p>\n

The introduction (1\u20133) presents an overview of Indian theories of language. Although there is no field of linguistics per se<\/em> in the Indian tradition, its subject matter is treated in depth by a wide variety of systems (P\u0101\u1e47\u031fini\u2019s being the most widely known outside India). Ch. 1, \u2018Origin and development of ancient theories of language\u2019 (5\u201371), presents the development of linguistic thought from the earliest Vedic traditions through post-P\u0101\u1e47inian discussions and commentary. Ch. 2, \u2018The connection of Vy\u0101kara\u1e47am with philosophy and Spo\u1e6da\u2019 (73\u201385), discusses the connection of Indian linguistics with religious philosophy.<\/p>\n

Ch. 3, \u2018The origin and development of Western linguistics\u2019 (87\u2013118), is a rather brief exploration of modern Western linguistics (the ancient Greek and Latin and the various medieval traditions being ignored) that starts by noting with some pride that modern linguistic theories of the West begin with the western discovery of Indian languages and theories of language. Beginning with Sir William Jones\u2019 comments on the relation of Sanskrit to the older European languages, S briefly introduces each of the major figures in the development of Western linguistics, noting in many important cases the indebtedness or at least similarities of their theories to the East.<\/p>\n

The remainder of the book compares how the East and West do linguistics. In Ch. 4, \u2018Oriental vs. Occidental\u2019 (119\u201336), S compares levels of analysis (phonetics, word, and sentence), concepts of language and meaning, language acquisition, and the competence\/performance distinction. Ch. 5, \u2018Discourse analysis\u2014East and West\u2019 (137\u201345), brings attention to work on discourse within the Indian tradition largely unknown or ignored outside India. Ch. 6, \u2018Inference, syllogism and the logical discourse\u2019 (147\u201353), is a brief digression on the logical syllogism as developed within Indian philosophy. Ch. 7, \u2018\u0100ryas and purism of language\u2019 (151\u201353), is a final note on the importance of correct speech within the Indian linguistic, as well as philosophical\/religious, tradition. Glossary (155\u201358), Bibliography (159\u201364), and Index (165\u201372) complete the book.<\/p>\n

Each point discussed is accompanied by extensive citation references to the original Sanskrit verses from a wide variety of treatises. While this may be the most valuable contribution of the book, the lack of an English translation limits their usefulness to those not well versed in Sanskrit. This is also true of many Sanskrit technical terms used in the body of the text.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Theories of language: Oriental and Occidental. By Korada Subrahmanyam. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld (P) Ltd., 2008. Pp. xii, 172. ISBN 9788124604557. $17.50. Reviewed by Michael W. Morgan, Addis Ababa University This book contrasts two lines of linguistic theory, ancient and modern, Indian and Western. As Korada Subrahmanyam is an Indian linguist from an orthodox […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1146"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1147,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1146\/revisions\/1147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}