"As one of the greatest monuments of human intelligence is by no means an exaggeration; no one who has had even a small acquaintance with that most remarkable book could fail to agree. In some four thousand sutras or aphorisms - some of them no more than a single syllable in length - Panini sums up the grammar not only of his own spoken language, but of that of the Vedic period as well. The work is the more remarkable when we consider that the author did not write it down but rather worked it all out of his head, as it were. Panini's disciples committed the work to memory and in tum passed it on in the same manner to their disciples.."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Jews from the United StatesHarvard University alumniLinguists from the United StatesUniversity of Chicago alumniYale University faculty
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Chavarria-Aguilar, 0 L edited by Traditional India - refer to chapter on Grammar - By Leonard Bloomfield Hall- Place of Publication: Englewood ClIffs, NJ Date of Publication: 1964 p. 109-113 as quoted in Londhe, S. (2008). A tribute to Hinduism: Thoughts and wisdom spanning continents and time about India and her culture
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leonard_Bloomfield
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Leonard Bloomfield
Leonard Bloomfield (April 1, 1887 – April 18, 1949) was an American linguist who led the development of structural linguistics in the United States during the 1930s and the 1940s.
4 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Leonard Bloomfield →
Related Quotes
"While in the classical world scholars were dealing with language in a somewhat metaphysical way, the Indians were tel…"
"It was in India, however, that there rose a body of knowledge which was destined to revolutionize European ideas abou…"
"The descriptive Grammar of Sanskrit, which Panini, brought to its high- est perfection, is one of the greatest monume…"
"Scientific education is catholic; it embraces the whole field of human learning. No student can master all knowledge …"
"Honest investigation is but the application of common sense to the solution of the unknown. Science does not wait on …"
"Years of drought and famine come and years of flood and famine come, and the climate is not changed with dance, libat…"
"The verb is relatively of much greater importance in an Indian tongue than in a civilized language."
"Possible ideas and thoughts are vast in number. A distinct word for every distinct idea and thought would require a v…"
"The integers of language are sentences, and their organs are the parts of speech. Linguistic organization, then, cons…"
"Indian nouns are extremely connotive; that is, the name does more than simply denote the thing to which it belongs; i…"