Jan Houben

Pānini's Grammar and Its Computerization: A Construction Grammar Approach

This article reviews the impact of modern theoretical views onour understanding of the nature and purpose of the grammar ofPānini (ca. 350 BCE), and argues that new possibilities forprogress open up for our understanding of this ancient grammar byconfronting it not with the presuppositions of generative grammaras has been done - with undeniable but limited theoretical profit--- in the last few decades, but with recently developed theoriesof construction grammar and cognitive linguistics. This, in turn,provides new perspectives on old problems in the study ofPāninian grammar, and especially on the challenge of itscomputerization. The present article focuses on general technicalaspects of Pāninis grammar and is the counterpart of a recentstudy on the earliest available elaborate theory of Pāninisgrammar, the one formulated by the grammarian-philosopherBhart.hari (5th cent. CE).