Before the Word

Name: Before the Word
Price: 34.26 AUD
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ISBN: 9798349204081

Praveen Maloo

$39.95 $34.26

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English

Shabd Publications
31 March 2026

linguistics; Philosophy; Artificial intelligence

Before the Word: What the World's Oldest Grammar Teaches Us About the Mind, Language, and Artificial Intelligence

More than 2,500 years ago, a grammarian named Pāṇini produced something the world had never seen: a complete, formal description of a language - precise enough to be a computer program, elegant enough to be considered sacred. The Ashtadhyayi predates modern linguistics by two millennia, yet it anticipates the deepest questions now confronting artificial intelligence. How does meaning arise from structure? Can rules generate understanding? Where does language end and thought begin?

Before the Word traces the hidden conversation between the oldest grammar ever written and the newest machines we have built. Drawing on Sanskrit philosophy, cognitive science, and the architecture of large language models, Praveen Maloo asks what the ancient tradition knew - and what we have forgotten - about the relationship between words, minds, and the world.

This is not a book about nostalgia for the past. It is an argument that some questions were asked so precisely the first time that we are only now catching up.

By: Praveen Maloo
Imprint: Shabd Publications
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 13mm
Weight: 336g
ISBN: 9798349204081
Pages: 248
Publication Date: 31 March 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Praveen Maloo grew up in India, where education meant Sanskrit alongside mathematics - language was never merely a tool. He has since built two technology companies in the United States, travelled through 170+ countries, and speaks seven languages, each one a different window onto the world. That restlessness made him attentive to what falls between languages, and to the ancient traditions that took those gaps seriously. He is the author of Before the Word, which examines how large language models are reshaping the foundations of communication, meaning, and cognition - bringing a practitioner's lens to the philosophical questions AI raises about how we speak, think, and understand. He writes at the intersection of Indian philosophy, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence.

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Before the Word

Praveen Maloo

$39.95 $34.26

Paperback

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