Terms for Negation ?

[Birgit Kellner]

Stephen,

thank you for providing more information. A quick glance at Negi's 
dictionary, entry for bzlog pa - just by way of an example - may clarify 
why I prefer to put "retrovert" in inverted commas (intended to indicate 
the uncertainty involved in the whole enterprise): there's quite a few 
words "bzlog pa" might translae ...

In this case the meaning "to exclude" seems pretty clear, but there are 
also several candidates for the word that "bzlog pa" might translate 
when this meaning is assumed: nivṛtti, vyāvṛtti, vyāvartana, and more.

Judging from discussions about negation in Buddhist epistemological and 
logical treatises, I tend to assume that either of these words is 
possible here, and that they all are widely used without much 
discrimination to denote the function of negative terms or particles.

In other words, this doesn't seem to be a particularly technical usage 
which would be part of some classification of kinds of negation, but an 
account using generally widespread terminology.

I hope this helps a little,

best,

Birgit





Am 03.02.2012 04:29, schrieb Stephen Hodge:
> Dear All,
>
> Thanks for the various suggestions on- and off-list. They have been helpful
> in general terms and will be of use in the future. However, I do not think
> they help with the term I am seeking to establish.
>
> Birgit:  The word in question is T: bzlog-pa with C: 遮, which normally
> retroverts to "vyāvartana". In this instance, it occurs in one passage
> forming part of Ch14 of the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra which contains a
> varṇa-patha allocated various doctrinal significations letter by letter.
> This version is interesting since it has no connection with the
>
> well-known A RA PA CA NA ones from NW India, nor, in terms of content, with
> those found elsewhere following the standard sequence of sounds. Most
> noteworthy is that it was originally based on a shorter Prakrit varṇa-patha,
> as can be seen in many of the term or explanations allocated to the
> individual letters.
>
> The specific lemma with "bzlog-pa" is:
>
> aṃ zhes bya ba ni nga'i bstan pa la<rung ba ma yin pa>  thams cad<bzlog pa
> dang>  | gser dang dngul spangs pa ste |<de bas na>  bzlog pa'i don du aṃ
> zhes bya'o ||
>
> Here I believe that "aṃ" is understood as the negative prefix "an-" ~ hence
> my enquiry. The bracketed portions do not belong to the hyparchetype, but
> are interpolations from two textual lineages that have been merged to form
> the extant Tibetan text.
>
> Birgit: Why have you put quotes around retrovert ? I am curious. Are you not
> very familiar with the term ? True, it is not used much in Buddhist circles
> though it ought to be. The terms retrovert and retroversion are widely used
> in Biblical Studies, esp LXX research, to describe exactly what I, and you
> too on occasion, am doing with Buddhist materials. See for example, Emmanuel
> Tov's "Text-Critical Use of the Septuagint in Biblical Research" which could
> be studied with benefit by any Buddhist scholar working with Tibetan or
> Chinese translation material, though the need for a knowledge of Hebrew and
> Greek may be a deterrent for some.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Stephen Hodge


-- 
--------

Prof. Dr. Birgit Kellner
Chair in Buddhist Studies
Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context - Shifting 
Asymmetries in Cultural Flows"
University of Heidelberg
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