Indian Linguistic Studies

Presents Sanskrit language studies in a new setting-that of `socio-linguistics'. Illustrate how some of the missing links in traditional Sanskrit studies can be understood if the evolutionary aspect of language studies is connected with the study of socio-cultural history of the speech The new model of socio-historical linguistics is for the first time conceived and developed as a variational, dynamic and developmental model. Neatly planned and richly illustrated, this book breaks a new ground in modern linguistic studies showing how socio-linguistic studies can be enjoyed not only as sources of new hypotheses in historical studies but also as source of rich cultural contexts lost from material archaeological discoveries. Language, pleads the author, preserves a rich cultural archaeology of a community. The formulation of the scientific methodology of language studies from this point of view has to be the logical sine qua non of all historical linguistic studies which have been in a state of revival since 1965.

Eminent scholaars of Indian Liguistics have offered insightful articles in honor of Prof. George Cardona, a luminary in the field of Indo-European, Indo-Aryan, and Paninian Studies for the past four decades. Besides Cardona`s bibliography, the volume contains 23 papers in the following areas: 1. Sanskrit Grammatical Theory; 2. Karaka Studies; 3. Historical Studies in Grammatical Traditions; 4. Lexical Studies; 5. Studies in Culture; 6. Modern Indian Languages. This volume represents cutting-edge research in the field of Indian Linguistic and Culture.

North East Indian Linguistics Volume 5 presents the latest research on the languages of North East India. This present volume both builds on earlier contributions made by established NEILS participants and introduces new work by scholars making their first mark in regional scholarship. Providing a rich database in the form of two appendices, Alexander Kondakov's paper represents a solid sociolinguistic background against which future grammatical investigation of Koch dialects can be conducted. Mark W. Post's paper continues Kondakov's focus on the social and cultural dimensions of dialectology, in an attempt to resolve the vexing question of Galo's genetic position in the Tani languages. Gwendolyn Hyslop presents the most comprehensive statement yet of the internal structure of this little-studied subgroup spanning Arunachal Pradesh and neighbouring Bhutan. Continuing investigation into nominalization and relational marking in North East Indian languages, Stephen Morey demonstrates that Latin-style grammatical 'case' labels are often inappropriate for the languages of North East India. The volume closes with an analysis of Wihu song poetry by Stephen Morey and Meenaxi Bhattacharjya - the latest of several ground-breaking contributions to ethno-musico-linguistic studies in North East India emerging from the Volkswagenstiftung-funded project led by Stephen Morey.

Native American languages are spoken from Siberia to Greenland, and from the Arctic to Tierra del Fuego; they include the southernmost language of the world (Yaghan) and some of the northernmost (Eskimoan). Campbell's project is to take stock of what is currently known about the history of Native American languages and in the process examine the state of American Indian historical linguistics, and the success and failure of its various methodologies. There is remarkably little consensus in the field, largely due to the 1987 publication of Language in the Americas by Joseph Greenberg. He claimed to trace a historical relation between all American Indian languages of North and South America, implying that most of the Western Hemisphere was settled by a single wave of immigration from Asia. This has caused intense controversy and Campbell, as a leading scholar in the field, intends this volume to be, in part, a response to Greenberg. Finally, Campbell demonstrates that the historical study of Native American languages has always relied on up-to-date methodology and theoretical assumptions and did not, as is often believed, lag behind the European historical linguistic tradition.

Tries to present a comparison and competition of the Indian contributions to the scientific study of language for the last 2500 years or more. This volume starts with the paper of Professor S D Joshi, which serves as an introduction to the whole volume in the form of keynote address.

What can the philosophy of language learn from the classical Indian philosophical tradition? As recently as twenty or thirty years ago this question simply would not have arisen. If a practitioner of analytic philosophy of language of that time had any view of Indian philosophy at all, it was most likely to be the stereotyped picture of a gaggle of navel gazing mystics making vaguely Bradley-esque pronouncements on the oneness of the one that was one once. Much work has been done in the intervening years to overthrow that stereotype. Thanks to the efforts of such scholars as J. N. Mohanty, B. K. Matilal, and Karl Potter, philoso phers working in the analytic tradition have begun to discover something of the range and the rigor of classical Indian work in epistemolgy and metaphysics. Thus for instance, at least some recent discussions of personal identity reflect an awareness that the Indian Buddhist tradition might prove an important source of insights into the ramifications of a reductionist approach to personal identity. In philosophy of language, though, things have not improved all that much. While the old stereotype may no longer prevail among its practitioners, I suspect that they would not view classical Indian philoso phy as an important source of insights into issues in their field. Nor are they to be faulted for this.