Wikipedia
( Devanagari , the Sanskrit for "bursting, opening", "spurt") is an important concept in the Indian grammatical tradition of Vyakarana, relating to the problem of speech production, how the mind orders linguistic units into coherent discourse and meaning.
The theory of is associated with ( 5th century), an early figure in Indic linguistic theory, mentioned in the 670s by Chinese traveller Yi-Jing. is the author of the ("[treatise] on words and sentences"). The work is divided into three books, the , (or "aggregation of traditions"), the , and the (or "miscellaneous").
He theorized the act of speech as being made up of three stages:
- Conceptualization by the speaker (Paśyantī " idea")
- Performance of speaking (Madhyamā " medium")
- Comprehension by the interpreter (Vaikharī "complete utterance").
is of the " speech monistic" school which identifies language and cognition. According to George Cardona, "Vākyapadīya is considered to be the major Indian work of its time on grammar, semantics and philosophy."