Philosophy of Grammar: Some Reflections

Abstract

No language exists without grammar. Every language has a grammar isolated from which no language can perform communication. Grammar is practice and is concerned with the language we speak and write to communicate a sense. Thoughts cease to be so isolated from language, similarly, the latter will cease to be language and will disappear without grammar. Accomplishment of communication is the justification in the matter of a grammar of some or other language. In this sense, grammar is the practice of the language that is based on and that can be deciphered in the light of the definitions for correctness or otherwise. The paper is a thorough discussion on the issues of grammar and critically evaluates the popular Indian views against counter views from Western philosophers on the concept of grammar. It argues in favor of Grammar of the definition and the definable that is Pāṇinian aphorism and its utility in day to day uses of language.