User:Dyḗwsuh₃nus/sandboxes/drafttwo

Sanskrit inherits form its parent Proto-Indo-European the capability of forming compound nouns, also widely seen in kindred languages such as especially German, Greek and also English.

However, Sanskrit, especially in the later stages of the language, significantly expands on this both in terms of the number of elements making up a single compound and the volume of compound-usage in the literature, a development which has no parallels elsewhere.

Further, this development in the later language is an entirely artificial, literary construct and does not reflect the spoken language.

Background
In Sanskrit, as in Proto-Indo-European, a compound is formed by the following process:


 * Take the stem-form of the first element, i.e., remove its inflexion;
 * Combine the two elements with a single accented syllable.

In the later language, this process can be repeated recursively -- in theory, ad infinitum, with the freshly made compound becoming the first element of a new one.

The process of 'resolving' the compound, i.e., expounding the meaning using the component words declined as in sentence form is termed vigraha·vākya.

Broadly, compounds can be divided into two classes: endocentric and exocentric.

Endocentric compounds
An endocentric compound, usually called determinative is where the compound is essentially the sum of its parts, the meaning being an extension of one of the parts:


 * blackbird → a type of black bird
 * White House → the official residence of the US president
 * siṅha·purás → lion-city (Singapore)

Exocentric compounds
An exocentric compound refers to something outside the components:


 * redhead → someone with red hair
 * pickpocket → someone who picks someone else's pockets
 * 'bahu·vrīhi' → lit. 'much-rice', i.e., and indication of wealth

Indeed, this term 'bahuvrihi' is used both in Sanskrit and standard Indo-European linguistics to denote this type of compound.

Sanskrit expands on these to provide several further distinctions as below:

Classification
Traditionally, Sanskrit compounds are divided into the following main classes:


 * Tatpuruṣa
 * Tatpuruṣa proper
 * Karmadhāraya
 * Dvigu
 * Nan tatpuruṣa
 * Prādi and gati
 * Upapada
 * Bahuvrīhi
 * Dvandva
 * Avyayībhava

The first two of these, tatpuruṣa and bahuvrīhi are Indo-European inheritances, the latter two are Indic innovations. Alongside the term bahuvrīhi, tatpuruṣa has also been adopted in mainstream Indo-European linguistics as the technical term denoting this type of compounding.

Tatpuruṣa - determinative
A tatpuruṣa compound – the most common type – is composed of two elements, out of which the first one determines the second one. Traditionally, several subtypes of tatpuruṣa compounds are identified.

The first is an attributive noun and the second a substantive. It is a dependent determinative compound, i.e. a compound XY meaning a type of Y which is related to X in a way corresponding to one of the grammatical cases of X, the most often one being the genitive.

Karmadhāraya - descriptive
The first element plays an appositional, attributive or adverbial role.