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[Stefan Baums]

On Monday, 11 March 2002, Lars Martin Fosse wrote:

> Does anybody on the list know about studies of Sanskrit grammar relying on
> transformational grammar, government & binding theory or other new-fangled
> linguistic methods? I would be grateful for bibliographic data!

Below are some such.  Many of the old-school generativists (Kiparsky,
Zwicky) had an interest in the "scientific and precise" descriptive
model of Panini's grammar and partially modelled their own theories on
him (rule ordering, etc.), though generative grammar in its G & B
incarnation and subsequently has moved away from that formal
apparatus.  Phonologists were particulary intrigued by the "ruki" rule
(see Zwicky, below) and Grassmann's law (Anderson, Mey, below), which
ran counter to some of their theoretical presuppositions.  A certain
fascination with Sanskrit continues in formal linguistics, so going
through the indices of recent linguistics handbooks and checking for
Sanskrit among the language examples may well be worth your while.

   Stephen R. Anderson, On Grassmann’s law in Sanskrit, Linguistic
   inquiry, 1970, 1, 387–396.

   Brendan S. Gillon, Word order in classical Sanskrit, Indian
   Linguistics: Journal of the Linguistic Society of India, 1996, 57,
   1–35.

   Hans Henrich Hock, 1991, Studies in Sanskrit syntax: a volume in honor
   of the centennial of Speijer’s Sanskrit syntax (1886–1986), Studies
   in Sanskrit syntax: a volume in honor of the centennial of
   Speijer’s Sanskrit syntax (1886–1986), Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass
   Publishers.

   Paul Kiparsky, Some theoretical problems in Pāṇini’s grammar,
   Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1982, Post‐graduate and
   Research Department Series‚ no.� 16 / “Professor K.� V.� Abhyankar
   Memorial Lectures”, second series, Poona.

   Jacob L. Mey, Was Bartholomae really a Grassmann?, Norwegian journal
   of linguistics, 1972, 26, 81–89.

   J. F. Staal, Room at the top in Sanskrit: ancient and modern
   descriptions of nominal composition, Indo‐Iranian Journal, 1965/66,
   IX, 165–198.

   J. F. Staal, Word order in Sanskrit and universal grammar, D.� Reidel
   Publishing Company, 1967, 5, Foundations of language: supplementary
   series, Dordrecht‐Holland.

   Arnold M. Zwicky Jr., Topics in Sanskrit phonology, Massachusetts
   Institute of Technology, 1965.

   Arnold M. Zwicky, Greek‐letter variables and the Sanskrit ruki class,
   Linguistic inquiry, 1970, 1, 549–555.

Best regards,
Stefan Baums

--
Stefan Baums
Asien-Instituttet
Københavns Universitet