Basics of Navya Nyaya Methodology to decode a sentence

Valid means of knowing as per the Nyaya system include Perception, Inference, Valid Testimony and Analogy. Navya Nyaya studies decoding of Valid Testimony i.e valid statements. Navya Nyaya believes that Language maps Reality and studies the decoding of Reality through Language. Navya Nyaya methodology is a great tool for Lawyers to interpret sentences and decode meaning.

The Navya Nyaya methodology prescribes a step by step procedure of reaching the sentence meaning. The first step involves in becoming aware of the words that are woven to form a sentence. Next step involves “remembering the meaning of each word”. In the case of multiple meanings of a word, the meaning that is intended by the speaker/ writer is taken into consideration. The “meanings of all words in the sentence” are strung together. The “sentence meaning” is understood when all the “meanings of the words” in the sentence are related to each other.

Navya Nyaya primarily strives to help us understand whether words are to be taken literally or as per the intention of the speaker. Because language is vague and at the same time it maps Reality, Navya Nyaya stresses on decoding the sentences based on the intention of the speaker/ writer. Take, for example, the sentence: The milkmen reside on the Ganges. Since it is not possible for the milkmen to reside on the Ganges, we need to ignore the Primary and Lietral meaning of the words ” on the Ganges” and go for the Extended and Intended meaning which is ” on the banks of the Ganges”. The Primary or Literal meaning is termed as “Shakti” and the Extended or Intended meaning is termed as “Lakshana”. The choice of the Extended meaning is not arbitary but through the evaluation of the Primary meaning and extension thereof.