Indian Theories of Meaning and Grammar – Novel Perspectives

Despite the fact that the academic tradition in both the West and India is centuries old and that numerous aspects of Indian theories of meaning and grammar have been addressed, there are still many unexplored topics. Thus, research that reinterprets and reevaluates some well-known topics in semantics and syntax is urgently required. Regrettably, when evaluated through the prism of the Western schools of linguistic thought, Indian theories of meaning and grammar have not garnered a great deal of attention. There are numerous aspects of Indian grammatical tradition that have a lot in common with current research in Western linguistics. For example, the role of context in meaning as envisioned by Indian philosophers of language under terminology such as Śabdaśakti, particularly Vyañjanā, has not been investigated in light of modern pragmatic theories such as the one developed by Grice. Likewise, what similarities exist between old Indian syntactic theories of compounding and Karaka and modern syntactic theories? This international workshop-combined conference is intended to address these issues. This conference will feature three lectures each by Endrew Ollett (Chicago) and John J. Lowe (Oxford) who will present their findings in semantics and syntax. These keynote speeches will be followed by a co-located afternoon sessions dedicated for the international conference entitled “Indian theories of Meaning and Grammar – Novel perspectives”. We solicit abstracts for papers (20 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes for discussion) to be presented at the upcoming conference at INALCO in Paris on June 7-9, 2023.