Dear Bryan and Nina,

thanks for your suggestions.

niitatthanti yathaarutavasena ~naatabbattha.m: meaning should be known as per the words.

yathaa-ruta-vasena: per-word(s)-as

Btw, just to point out that Monier Williams is available online:
http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/monier/

metta,
Yong Peng.

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Bryan Levman wrote:

<niitatthanti yathaarutavasena ~naatabbattha.m: meaning should be known, (?) as if by the influence of the sound (?).>

I think vasena in this case just means "because of" and yathaaruta, means "according to the sound (only)" - i. e. according to the normal meaning of the words, not requiring interpretation, according to its plain or clear meaning (see Monier Williams s.v . nitaartha)