This article is one of a series that reassesses the dhāraṇī texts of Mahāyāna Buddhism. The article seeks to examine dhāraṇī texts by using the linguistic tools of pragmatics, especially historical pragmatics, to assist the understanding of their statements. Rather than the meaning of the term dhāraṇī as a subject term, the domain of truth-conditional semantics, this paper examines statements in texts labelled dhāraṇī. Pragmatics examines meaning in context, and the categories of speech acts developed by Searle has been especially helpful in mapping out differences within such texts and the formalization of statements across texts. The grammaticalization of specific speech elements, especially interjections, in the context of mantra-dhāraṇīs is also discussed.
目次
Semantics or historical pragmatics 7 Dharani pragmatic divisions 11 A. Precipitating assertives 13 B. Dharani directives 17 C. Dharani commissives 21 D. Dharani precedent and predictive assertives 23 E. Benefit assertives 28 F. Warning assertive hybrids 31 G. Expressives in praise of the Buddha or Bodhisattvas 33 H. Narrative perlocutionary expressive or assertive statements 34 I. Mantra-dharanls as directives with complex coding 36 Conclusion: Encoded suppositions and expectations 52 Bibliography 54
