Through the study of numerous Sanskrit technical texts, the present study aims to show and explain how the specificity of the semiotic status of proper names has been approached in the three traditional Indian disciplines of vy ā kara ṇ a (grammar), the ny at are (logical) and m ī m at m s at (exegesis), disciplines that put the reflection on language at the centre of their concerns. The question of the "meaning" of proper names has given rise to many reflections, both in the West and in India.If the debates, in the West, mainly concern logic and philosophy, linguistics participating only marginally, it is primarily grammarians ( vaiy à kara ṇ a ) and logicians ( naiy à yika ) who, in India, got hold of the problem. This work shows how the former mostly defended the idea that proper nouns denote and connote, while among the latter, it is the idea of a direct denotation, without connotation, which was most often supported. |