Publications

Publication details [#31782]

Staal, Frits. 2003. Simultaneities in Vedic ritual. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 4 (2) : 195–210.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Language as a subject
Place, Publisher
John Benjamins
ISBN
1566-5852
Journal DOI
10.1075/jhp

Annotation

The use of language primarily displays succession, not simultaneity. It is common for people to talk at the same time or interrupt each other, but this is reduced to cases of succession. Vedic ritual involves not only succession but also simultaneities that are structural. Other structural simultaneities may be attributed to a “horror of gaps.” A separate class are stage directions. A final comment is made on multifunctionality in space, a parallel to the temporal concept of simultaneity.