later elements in the utterance. Further, words are understood only in the context of the sentence whose meaning as a whole is known. His argument for this was based on language acquisition, e.g. consider a child observing the exchange below: elder adult (uttama-vṛddha "full-grown"): says "bring the horse" younger adult (madhyama-vṛddha "half-grown"): reacts by bringing the horse The child observing this may now learn that the unit "horse" refers to the animal. Unless the child knew the sentence meaning a priori, it would be difficult for him to infer the meaning of novel words. Thus, we grasp the sentence meaning as a whole, and reach words as parts of the sentence, and word meanings as parts of the sentence meaning through "analysis, synthesis and abstraction" (apoddhāra). The sphoṭa theory was influential, but it was opposed by many others. Later Mimamsakas like Kumarila Bhatta (c. 650 CE) strongly rejected the vākyasphoṭa view, and argued for the denotative power of each word, arguing for the composition of meanings (abhihitānvaya). The Prabhakara school (c. 670) among Mimamsakas however took a less atomistic position, arguing that word meanings exist, but are determined by context (anvitābhidhāna). In a section of the chapter on Relation Bhartrhari discusses the liar paradox and identifies a hidden parameter which turns an unproblematic situation in daily life into a stubborn paradox. In addition, Bhartrhari discusses here a paradox that has been called "Bhartrhari's paradox" by Hans and Radhika Herzberger. This paradox arises from the statement "this is unnameable" or "this is unsignifiable". The Mahābhāṣya-dīpikā (also Mahābhāṣya-ṭīkā) is an early subcommentary on Patanjali's Vyākaraṇa-Mahābhāṣya, also attributed to Bhartṛhari. Śatakatraya Bhartrihari's poetry is aphoristic, and comments on the social mores of the time. The collected work is known as "the three or 'hundreds' ('centuries')", consisting of three thematic compilations on shringara, vairagya and niti (loosely: love, dispassion and moral conduct) of hundred verses each. Unfortunately, the extant manuscript versions of these s vary widely in the verses included. D.D. Kosambi has identified a kernel of two hundred that are common to all the versions. Here is a sample that comments on social mores: And here is one dealing with the theme of love: The clear bright flame of a man's discernment dies When a girl clouds it with her lamp-black eyes. [Bhartrihari #77, tr. John Brough; poem 167] Bhartrhari's paradox Bhartrhari's paradox is the title of a 1981 paper by Hans and