Mantra

Mantra features significantly in all of the religions of Indian origin (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism). The Sanskrit term mantra may be characterized as a syllable or word, or group of such, the utterance of which is supposed to have special powers. The syllables or words may or may not be meaningless, but the utterance of them in a ritual context is supposed to guarantee success in some ritual end. One of the most fundamental issues about mantra that modern scholars disagree on is whether mantra is language. Some hold that mantras are mostly meaningless sound constructs; others hold that mantras are meaningful linguistic items. The alinguistic view holds that mantras can be assimilated to ritual and are meaningless. They are not language because they lack two essential properties of language: syntax and semantics. The opposing linguistic view of mantras thinks of them as speech acts, and hence a form of language which is meaningful. On this view, while the words of the mantra may or may not be semantically meaningless, their utterance in the right context is pragmatically meaningful in virtue of constituting a special kind of illocutionary speech act.