Here I pasted my two assignments links which I have done in my M.Phil study
Scholar's Life
Introduction
First of all if we ask a question that what is scholar? Answer is that ' A learned or erudite person especially one who has profound a knowledge of a particular subject'. Scholar masterly gets some knowledge of his subject of choice. Literary means connected with writing study or appreciation of literature. So, literary scholar means a scholar one who study or get knowledge of literature. The behavior of scholar, language of scholar, thoughts of scholar, everything is different than other, so let’s know more details about the life of scholar.
Scholar’s Life
Literary scholar never stops being a scholar. Today most of them earn their living as members of teaching faculties in colleges and universities throughout the world. Their responsibility is quite remote from the pursuit of knowledge. They have to do many other works being as teacher, administrators, academic committee members, etc. Not only these but they have to do their private role as spouses, parents, family, social works, etc. In the busy schedule the literary awareness of the literary scholar keeps twenty-four- hour days. It means their ideas and thoughts are going on related with their work. They have to do multitasking all the time whether in school, university or at home. So, as a literary scholar they have to be alert whole days. It is now almost a century since literary study began to be professionalized. For scholars there is no good environment in which they study only as scholar.
According to Wayne Booth, for instance, The Scholar regretted the proliferation of dissertation topics that concentrate on the formal aspects of literary texts "isolated from the influences of ethics, politics, history, logic, dialectic, and even grammar." The scope of English studies now also includes writing theory and pedagogy. At the same time meaning of the word 'meaning' have been drastically redefined. It is eternally slippery word. Now a days, scholarly activity become for gathering figures rather than knowledge. The scores of conferences are just remaining; only quantity is lying, lost of quality. The study of literature remains at base an intensely private pursuit. No one read papers before an audience to see his or her original ideas on a literary topic printed in a learned journal. Right Intentions of conferences are to love of books and a consuming interest in the intellectual and esthetic questions from different backgrounds and tastes. In scholarship there is no prejudice born of national origin, creed, color or social class. They always live in truest democracy of all, the democracy of the intellect. Scholars are working together for the benefit of society, not for private aggrandizement. Scholar always think in different ways as compare to common man, always think about the better society while common man think about his personal profits. So, from these many ways scholar is very different than others.
Two Principles of Scholar’s Life
1) Let others know what you are working on. Don't worry about boring them; if you are genuinely excited, your excitement is bound to be contagious. True scholar always opens up his works or his ideas that what he think and how he think. He never hides his literary works rather than he presents it. In this technology era, scholar shares his works through digital tools and because of that more people can read it on easier way. This is one of the great benefits of this techno-era. And as a scholar, he must have to use it.
2) Keep up with what other people are doing, not only in your own field but in others as well. As a scholar, he must have to be aware of his time and society. He must have to be closer observer, so he comes to know or understand that what is going on in and around us. As a literary scholar, he must have to know everything related with literature but only that much is not enough. He has to observers every field, what's going there. So, these two principles are very important to being a scholar.
Other things related to scholar’s Life
Scholars are sustained by desirability of fair play, self- respect, and professional morale. Sometimes scholars are discouraged and may share the belief, so prevalent in the word outside, that our achievements have an unreal quality, or if they are real, at least they are futile: that they add nothing to the sum of human wisdom or happiness. Yet if scholars are unappreciated and undervalued, the fault is partly theirs. They gladly learn, but outside the classroom many of them are curiously uninterested in teaching. Many modern critics and scholars have developed the habit of talking only to each other, neglecting the broader audience of educated people. It is scholar’s responsibility to seize every opportunity to communicate with the lay audience, as in book reviews or in articles and essays in the popular press on history, biography and Culture. To educate students at all levels to read, write, and think, developing in them the intellectual curious habit of mind that casts a disinterested eye over all important issues, appreciating their complexities; and to lead students by extensive reading and critical analysis of recognized writers and thinkers, ancient and contemporary, inside and outside the mainstream, to seek, in Matthew Arnold's words, "The best that is known and thought in the world". And the purpose of creating in their own lives a 'current of new and fresh ideas' appropriate in this current time. And current time is related with technology so scholars and students of literature also have to use these current tools of technology, to walk with time. And because of that people understand and appreciate the works of scholars, use of those works in betterment of society. (Altick)
Conclusion
Thus, to be a scholar is not an easy task, and the life of scholar is much busier than others. They have to always be ready to do many works with at a time. And for that the skill of multitasking is very important to acquire as scholar. Because they have to do many works at a time and their minds are always alert. Any common man can’t be scholar; it is an intellectual activity which requires sound knowledge as well as understanding.
“They're so cold, these scholars!
May lightning strike their food
So, that their mouths learn how
To eat fire! "
-Friedrich Nietzsche
Altick, Richard, Fenstermaker. The Art of Literary Research. n.d.
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