Mukulabhaṭṭa's Defense of LakṣaṆā: How We Use Words to Mean Something Else, But Not Everything Else

Authors

Malcolm Keating, The University of Texas at AustinFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2013

Publication Title

Journal of Indian Philosophy

Abstract

We frequently use single words or expressions to mean multiple things, depending upon context. I argue that a plausible model of this phenomenon, known as laks{dot below}aN{dot below}ā by Indian philosophers, emerges in the work of ninth-century Kashmiri Mukulabhat{dot below}t{dot below}a. His model of laks{dot below}aN{dot below}ā is sensitive to the lexical and syntactic requirements for sentence meaning, the interpretive unity guiding a communicative act, and the nuances of creative language use found in poetry. After outlining his model of laks{dot below}aN{dot below}ā, I show how arthāpatti, or presumption, forms the basis of both semantic and pragmatic processes in this approach. I employ a model from contemporary linguist James Pustejovsky as one way of reconstructing Mukulabhat{dot below}t{dot below}a's analysis. Finally, I argue that presumption is responsible for the wide range of interpretations in creative uses of language, and that our interpretations are constrained, through defeasible in a way that our decodings of literal meanings typically are not.

Keywords

Laks{dot below}aN{dot below}ā, Language, Metaphor, Metonymy, Mukulabhat{dot below}t{dot below}a, Pragmatics, Semantics

Volume

41

Issue

4

First Page

439

Last Page

461

DOI

10.1007/s10781-013-9184-5

ISSN

00221791

Comments

Archived as published.

Recommended Citation

Keating, Malcolm, "Mukulabhaṭṭa's Defense of LakṣaṆā: How We Use Words to Mean Something Else, But Not Everything Else" (2013). Philosophy: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/phi_facpubs/75