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Article published In:
Studies in Language
Vol. 48:1 (2024) ► pp.1–64

Early Vedic compounds

A typological reappraisal

ORCID logo | University of Pavia

Despite a longstanding tradition of studies in Sanskrit compounds, a description that enables comparisons in cross-linguistic perspective has not yet been worked out. The present article follows classificatory criteria introduced by Bisetto & Scalise (2005, 2009) and sketches a typology of compounds in the most archaic variety of Sanskrit, Early Vedic, as transmitted by the RigVeda. Analyzing compounds on the basis of the grammatical relations holding between their constituents provides a classification into coordinate, subordinate, and attributive compounds, with the endocentric/exocentric divide cutting across all classes. In order to identify the position of Early Vedic compounds on the syntax-morphology continuum, the article investigates the degree of cohesiveness at the level of morphology, prosody, syntax, and semantics. With this respect, the RigVeda offers a varied picture where relics of archaic, less cohesive forms occur side-to-side with more productive and word-like ones.

Keywords: compounds, Early Vedic, typology, coordinate, subordinate, attributive, cohesiveness
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.General issues of compounding in Early Vedic
  • 3.Relation between constituents: A new classification of Early Vedic compounds
    • 3.1Bisetto & Scalise’s classification of compound types
    • 3.2Coordinate compounds
    • 3.3Subordinate compounds
      • 3.3.1Verbal-nexus subordinate compounds
      • 3.3.2Ground subordinate compounds
      • 3.3.3Prepositional compounds
    • 3.4ATAP compounds
      • 3.4.1Attributive compounds
      • 3.4.2Appositive compounds
    • 3.5Reduplicative compounds
    • 3.6Borderline cases
    • 3.7Interim summary
  • 4.Cohesiveness
    • 4.1Morphological cohesiveness
    • 4.2Prosodic cohesiveness
    • 4.3Do syntactic constraints apply to members of compounds?
    • 4.4Compositionality of meaning
    • 4.5Recursivity
    • 4.6Interim summary
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 7 February 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.20069.bia
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