​Sphoṭa and the Bilingual Mind: Reimagining Translanguaging Beyond Structure and Fluidity

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Reimagining Programs and Curricular Practices in Dual Language Education

Abstract

The translanguaging debate in education and bilingualism has often polarized around two dominant paradigms: one rooted in structural linguistics that emphasizes separable, rule-based language systems, and another grounded in poststructuralist critique that emphasizes fluid repertoires and sociopolitical constructions of language. This paper introduces the Sanskritic linguistic philosophy of Sphoṭa, as articulated by Bhartṣhari, as a third epistemological trajectory that may offer a way beyond this binary. By reconceptualizing meaning as an indivisible cognitive whole that emerges holistically through utterance, Sphoṭa provides a framework that is both cognitively plausible and philosophically expansive. The paper offers Sphoṭa within contemporary debates on bilingual cognition and translanguaging, and ends with some implications for empirical work.

Author

• Gautam Singh Bisht, Northwestern University