Theory of Sphota

 Theory of Sphota

Introduction

          Theory of Sphota is the contribution of Bhartrhari to linguistics. In this assignment we will see the meaning of spota and what is the concept of this theory.

What is Sphota?

          Words have two faces: the external face looks at the sounds (dhvani), while the internal face looks at the meaning (artha). The underlying cause of the articulated sounds (sabdanam nimittam) is the sound- pattern which underlies instances of the utterance of the word; this abstract sound- pattern with the time- sequence still attached to it is called ‘Prakrta- dhvani’ and is the external aspect of the language. The internal aspect, which is directly attached to the meaning, is the sphota. It is kind of mental perception which is described as a moment of recognition, an instantaneous flash (pratibha), whereby the hearer is made conscious, through hearing sounds, of the latent meaning unit already presents in his consciousness. In short meaning is lying in whole sentence rather than in words and meaning is already lying in the mind of reader. So, this is the basic concept of sphota.

Origin of the ‘sphota’:

Sanskrit sphota is etymologically derived from the root sphuṭ 'to burst'. It is used in its technical linguistic sense by Patañjali (2nd century BCE), in reference to the "bursting forth" of meaning or idea on the mind as language is uttered. Patañjali's  sphoṭa is the invariant quality of speech. The acoustic element (dhvani) can be long or short, loud or soft, but the sphoṭa remains unaffected by individual speaker differences.

 Development of the ‘Theory of Sphota’

          He emphasizes that a word has a double power; it can convey an idea of the form of an expression as well as its content. Meaning is like water, if we put it in glass then it shapes like that and if we put it in another thing then it shapes like that thing. As same, meaning is also changing with its context. The grammarian too accepts that words will have to be taken as referring to themselves until the relation between the word and the meaning is known. According to Patanjali, when we do not hear a word properly, we ask, ‘What did you say?’, thereby indicating that we have not understood the form of the word.

          Bhartrhari analyzed three aspects of the language situation as under,

          So, let’s know these three terms one by one,

1)   Vaikrta –dhvani (Vaikhari): It means the actual sound spoken by the speaker and heard by the listener. It includes all the various differences in intonation, tempo, pitch, etc. This is depending on individual speaker. It is not capable to express the meaning of an utterance. It is only express ‘madhyama’ form of speech which conveys the meaning. In short it is only the sound which is listen by our ears for example if we don’t know the English language, and anybody said something to us in English at that time we listen the sound spoken by the person but meaning is not conveyed to us.

2)   Prakrta- dhvani (Madhyama): It is the phonological structure, the sound pattern of the norm. It considered as acoustic image of the normal expression, or the expression in the mind, keeping the time-order with it. Sometimes it may happen that without use of vaikrta the meaning is bearing spota by the help of prakrta, when somebody is reading silently.

3)   Sphota (Pasyanti): It is the integral linguistic symbol, which is the unit of meaning. We cannot be pronounced or written. This is manifested by the prakrta- dhvani.

Thus, the vaikhari sounds indicates the madhyama and the madhyama sound expresses sphota. So, after all these three are inter-related with each other. The meaning conveyed through these three processes. And it happens one by one, so we understand the meaning of word through these many things.

Understanding of Sphota in detail