成唯識論述記 2.445

2.445

述曰：此下第五段，徵機調難，有三：一、問；二、詰；三、調。此初。外人問言：何理定知能詮法者，非名身等，體即是語，若聲能生名，名可能詮，聲非能詮。能詮離聲，既無別體，初發聲時應即能詮，何為初不能詮，後方能詮？故知後時名等生也，由此故知能詮即語。

The Commentary states: Below is the fifth section, challenging and taunting the opponent's capacity, which has three parts: 1. questioning; 2. interrogating; 3. taunting. This is the first. The opponent asks: 'By what principle is it definitively known that the signifying phenomenon is not the group of words and so forth, but its substance is speech itself? If sound can produce words, words can signify, while sound is not a signifier. Since the signifier has no distinct entity apart from sound, at the very first moment sound is emitted, it should already be able to signify; why can it not signify at first, and only signify later? Hence we know that words and so forth are produced at a later time; therefore, how is it known that the signifier is speech itself?'