Language, Music & Games
Bhartrhari's sphota theory of meaning
c. 5th c. CEBhartrhariVakyapadiyaPan-Indian / unspecified
400 CE
A philosophy of language holding that meaning is grasped as a whole utterance, not word by word.
- Dated
- 400–499 CE
- As scholars put it
- c. 5th c. CE
- Originator
- Bhartrhari
- Source text
- Vakyapadiya
- Region
- Pan-Indian / unspecified
- Discipline
- Language, Music & Games
- Evidence
- Documented
- Confidence
- High
- Verification
- Reference-cited
Meanwhile in the West
Compared with modern holistic semantics.
Fair to say
A philosophical theory, not an empirical result.
Path to modern innovation
Studied in linguistics and philosophy of language.
Builds on
500 BCEReferences
- 1Vakyapadiya
- 2Matilal
Further reading
Corrections and additional sources: edit IND-315 on GitHub.