Background of the Astadhyayi

摘要

1. I have hesitated in accepting the invitation extended to me by Amba Kulka-rni on September 9. The main reason was that I am not acquainted with what is called Sanskrit Computational Linguistics, or with theories of Machine Translation, or with information theory. In fact, I know nothing about these subjects. So what can I tell you? In view of my deeply regretted lack of knowledge regarding the subjects mentioned, I have decided to deliver a talk on a subject of which I have some experience, namely, Panini's linguistic analysis as shown in his method of analysis, in the development of theoretical concepts and in the composition of the Astadhyayi.