THE EMERGENCE OF SEMANTICS IN FOUR LINGUISTIC TRADITIONS AMSTERDAM STUDIES IN THE THEORY AND HISTORY OF LINGUISTIC SCIENCE General Editor E. F. KONRAD KOERNER (University of Ottawa) Series III – STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF THE LANGUAGE SCIENCES Advisory Editorial Board Sylvain Auroux (Paris); Ranko Bugarski (Belgrade) Lia Formigari (Rome); John E. Joseph (Edinburgh) Hans-Josef Niederehe (Trier); Emilio Ridruejo (Valladolid) Rosane Rocher (Philadelphia); Vivian Salmon (Oxford) Kees Versteegh (Nijmegen) Volume 82 Wout van Bekkum, Jan Houben, Ineke Sluiter and Kees Versteegh The Emergence of Semantics in Four Linguistic Traditions Hebrew, Sanskrit, Greek, Arabic THE EMERGENCE OF SEMANTICS IN FOUR LINGUISTIC TRADITIONS HEBREW, SANSKRIT, GREEK, ARABIC WOUT VAN BEKKUM University of Groningen JAN HOUBEN University of Leiden INEKE SLUITER Free University Amsterdam KEES VERSTEEGH University of Nijmegen JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of 8 American National Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The emergence of semantics in four linguistic traditions : Hebrew, Sanskrit, Greek, Arabic / Wout Van Bekkum ... [et al.]. p. cm. -- (Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. Series III, Studies in the history of the language sciences, ISSN 0304-0720; v. 82) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Bible. O.T.--Criticism, interpretation, etc., Jewish. 2. Rabbinical literature--History and criticism. 3. Hebrew language--Semantics. 4. Sanskrit language--Semantics. 5. Greek lan- guage--Semantics. 6. Arabic language--Semantics. 7. Semantics. Comparative. I. Bekkum, Wout Jac. van. II. Series. BS1186.E44 1997 97-2502 401’.43--DC21 CIP ISBN 90 272 4568 1 (Eur.) / 1-55619-617-2 (US) (Hb; alk. paper) r97 © Copyright 1997 - John Benjamins B.V. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher. John Benjamins Publishing Co. • P.O.Box 75577 • 1070 AN Amsterdam • The Netherlands John Benjamins North America • P.O.Box 27519 • Philadelphia PA 19118-0519 • USA PREFACE In 1993 the authors of this book came together for the first time in the office of one of them at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam. We knew each other from our publications in the field of the history of linguistics in various languages and were intrigued by the coexistence in one small country of specialists in four diverse linguistic traditions. The purpose of our meeting was to explore the possibility of finding a common theme in our respective traditions and publishing our ideas on this theme in a collective volume. It soon turned out that the common denominator in the four traditions involved, Greek, Hebrew, Sanskritand Arabic,was thepresence of acorpus ofrevealed or revered texts, which gave rise to the development of linguistic and herme- neutic studies. The question which the authors formulated was: How did the development of semantic theory intereact with the specific corpus cherished in each tradition? Since we were all living reasonably close to each other, we decided to discuss these problems regularly and to submit the successive versions of our own sections of the intended book to each other’s scrutiny. This turned out to be a successful way of developing new insights: by discussing the role of semantics in the other three traditions the authors were forced to re-evaluate their ideas on their ‘own’ tradition. Even though travel schedules to India, the United States, Israel and the Arab world did not always synchronize and it was sometimes hard even within a small country to arrange meetings, the authors managed to stay in touch either in person or by telephone and we are very proud to be able to present our collective effort in book form to the reader. The authors are responsible for their own section, but we bear a collective responsibility for the final chapter in which a brief synthesis is attempted of the results of our study. The authors wish to express their thanks in the first place to each other for aninnovatingexperimentincooperationandmutualstimulation.Wearevery grateful to the publisher, John Benjamins, and to the editor of the series, Konrad Koerner, for their trust in this enterprise. Jan Houben wishes to thank vi preface T. Vetter, J. Bronkhorst and H. Isaacson for their valuable comments on earlier versions of his article, and the International Institute for Asian Studies (Leiden) for providing continuing support and inspiration. The preparation of Wout van Bekkum’s part was accomplished under the aegis of the Centre for Classical, Oriental, Mediaeval and Renaissance Studies (comers) at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. The Centre provided him with a summer re- search grant. His thanks are also offered to Camilla Adang, Monique Ber- nards and Meira Polliack for their valuable comments. Ineke Sluiter’s re- search was made possible by a grant from the Royal Netherland’s Academy of Arts and Sciences. Parts of her essay were written in Clare Hall (Cam- bridge), and the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington D.C. She thanks both these institutions for their hospitality. She also wishes to express her gratitudetoDirk Schenkeveld,RosalindThomasand IstvanBodnar, whoread earlierversionsandofferedhelpfulcriticism.KeesVersteeghwishestothank Zeinab Taha for her insightful criticism of his article. Groningen, Leiden, Amsterdam, Nijmegen April 1996 Wout van Bekkum Jan Houben Ineke Sluiter Kees Versteegh Contents Preface v part i—The Hebrew tradition 1 1. Introduction 3 2. Terminology 4 3. Intra-Biblical tradition 6 4. Rabbinic exegetical tradition 8 5. Language and exegesis in the medieval Jewish tradition 17 5.1 Saadiah Gaon 17 5.2 Translation technique 21 5.3 The way towards p˘eš¯at 23 5.4 Meaning in Hebrew grammar and lexicography 24 6. The logical and philosophical tradition of medieval Judaism 28 6.1 Moses Maimonides 28 6.2 The influence of Maimonides 35 7. Conclusion 39 8. Suggestions for further reading 40 9. Bibliographical references 41 part ii—The Sanskrit tradition 49 1. Introduction 51 2. Terminology 56 3. Awareness of language and meaning in early Vedic texts and ancillary disciplines 61 3.1 The Vedic hymns 61 3.2 The Br¯ahmanas and ancillary disciplines 64 viii contents 4. Nirukta: ‘‘etymology’’ or ‘‘explanation of word meaning through derivation’’ 71 5. The exegetic guidelines of early M¯ım¯a˙ms¯a 74 6. Grammar and semantics in the early P¯aninian tradition 84 6.1 The role of meanings and semantics in P¯anini’s grammar 84 6.2 Early commentators on P¯anini’s Ast¯adhy¯ay¯ı:K¯aty¯ayana and Patañjali 92 7. Logic, ontology and semantics in Ny¯aya and Vai´sesika 98 7.1 The Vai´sesika-system 98 7.2 The Ny¯aya-system 8. Challenging the Brahminical tradition: Buddhists and Jainas 103 8.1 The Jainas 103 8.2 The Buddhists 105 9. Bhartrhari’s discussion of linguistic and semantic theories: 110 major issues and parameters 9.1 The first book of the V¯akyapad¯ıya: Introductory matter 112 and the relation between sound, signifier and meaning 9.2 The second book of the V¯akyapad¯ıya: On the primary unit 115 in language 9.3 The third book of the V¯akyapad¯ıya: Philosophical and 120 semantic investigations of grammatical categories pertaining to the words in the sentence 10. Developments after the V¯akyapad¯ıya: apoha ‘‘exclusion’’, 123 poetics, theories of s¯´abda-bodha ‘‘understanding from language’’ 11. Conclusion 131 12. Suggestions for further reading 134 13. Bibliographical references 137 part iii—The Greek tradition 147 1. Introduction 149 2. Terminology 151 3. Folk linguistics, etymology, magic: The meaning of names 155 4. Pre-Alexandrian exegesis (6th–4th centuries bce) 163 5. The intellectuals’ debate in the 6th and 5th centuries bce 168 of language, truth, knowledge and reality 6. Plato: The limits of language 177 7. Aristotle: The function of language 188 contents ix 8. The Hellenistic period: Philosophy and philology 200 9. Apollonius Dyscolus: The role of semantics in syntactic theory 206 10. Augustine: Semantics and theology 210 11. Semantics and translation 213 12. Conclusion 216 13. Suggestions for further reading 218 14. Bibliographical references 220 part iv—The Arabic tradition 225 1. Introduction 227 2. From speaker to text: The exegetical tradition 233 3. From text to language: S¯ıbawayhi 239 4. The role of semantics in Arabic linguistic theory 244 5. The relationship between logic and grammar 251 6. The relationship between rhetoric and grammar 259 7. Towards a theory of signification 266 8. Conclusion 274 9. Suggestions for further reading 277 10. Bibliographical references 279 Meaning in four linguistic traditions: a comparison 285 1. Introduction 285 2. From exegesis to semantics 286 3. The role of canonical texts 287 4. Beginnings of linguistic thought within canonical texts 289 —etymology 5. Exegesis 290 6. Beginnings of semantic theory—influence from other 293 disciplines—distinction of sound and meaning 7. The locus of meaning 294 8. Incongruity between form and meaning 295 9. The nature and origin of language 295 10. Contacts between languages—translations 296 11. An area of disagreement: The status of exegesis 298 Chronological Table 302 Indexof names 305 Indexof subjects 311 Part One THE HEBREW TRADITION Wout Jac. van Bekkum Groningen University ‘‘And if you think I have not understood the meaning of your message, you do not simply repeat it in the same words, you try to explain it in different words, different from the ones you used originally; but then the it is no longer the it you started with.’’ David Lodge, Small World, 1984,p.25 1.–Introduction ‘‘Linguistic description minus grammar equals semantics’’ (Katz & Fodor 1963: 170). This general dictum is occasionally cited in order to assert the chaotic role of meaning and definition of meaning in grammar and language studies.