Rule-extension Strategies in Ancient India

This study focuses on the devices implemented in Classical Indian texts on ritual and language in order to develop a structure of rules in an economic and systematic way. It reveals a key feature of some among the most influential schools of Indian thought and will be of interest for Sanskritists, scholars of ritual exegesis and of the history of linguistics.

Autorentext

Elisa Freschi is project-leader at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna. After a degree in Sanskrit and one in Philosophy, she has gained her PhD on Indian Philosophy, with a thesis on the Epistemology of Sacred Texts (2006). She works on themes of epistemology, linguistics and philosophy of religion.
Tiziana Pontillo is Assistant Professor of Sanskrit at Cagliari University, Italy (since 2002). She gained her PhD with a thesis on Pa i i's Zero-Morphology (2000) and has taught General Linguistics at Udine University (2001-2002). She is the author of more than 70 contributions, often included in the proceedings of international conferences.

Inhalt
Contents: Scientific descriptive methods Substitution patterns Zero-theories Extra-mathematical concept of placeholder Conflict between different rules Technical literatures in comparison: ritual and grammatical traditions Space (vs. time) as conceptual background tantra (simultaneous application) vs. prasaga (automatic involvement) Automatic involvement and blocking of rules.