Śabda, or Language from the hearer's side
“Śabda […] will be often translated as ‘language’ unless the context demands that it be translated as ‘linguistic utterance’, that is words and sentences. A piece of knowledge derived from the linguistic utterance (the hearer's knowledge) is accorded by all [Indian] philosophers except the Vaiśeṣikas and the Buddhists a special status side by side with perception and inference. It is not subsumed under perception, nor under inference either. […] ‘Śabda or Word is what is instructed by a trustworthy person (āpta)’ [Nyāyasūtra I.1.7]. Here śabda stands for śabdapramāṇa, i.e., the means of knowledge (pramāṇa) [that is a linguistic utterance.]
Bimal K. Matilal, The Word and the World (Oxford, 1990), p.5
