Le nom propre en Inde

By analysing a large number of Sanskrit technical texts, this study aims to show and explain how the specificity of the semiotic status of proper nouns has been addressed in the three traditional Indian disciplines ofvyākaraṇa (grammar), nyāya (logic) andmīmāṃsā (exegesis), in all three of which reflection on language is central. The question of the "meaning" of proper nouns has prompted much discussion in the West and in India.
Whereas debate, in the West, covers mainly logic and philosophy, with linguistics playing only a marginal role, it is primarily the grammarians (vaiyākaraṇa) and the logicians (naiyāyika) who have tackled the problem in India. This volume shows how Western experts, in their majority, defended the idea that proper nouns have both denotative and connotative meaning whilst, among their Indian counterparts, it is the idea of direct denotation, without connotation, which has been most frequently supported.